THE   CRADLE 


OF  THE 


CONFEDERACY; 


OR,  THE  TIMES  OF 


TROUP,  QUITMAN  AND  VANm, 


A  Sketch   of   Southwestern  Political  History 

FROM  THE  Formation  of  the  Federal 

Government  to  A.  D.  1861. 


By  JOSEPH    HODGSON, 

OF   MOBILE. 


MALIM  INQUIETAM  LIBERTATEM,  C^UAM  QUI^T.UM  SERVITIUM. 


p0MU: 

PRINTED  AT  THE  REGISTER   PUBLISHING  OFFICE. 
1876. 


^'$ 


Entered,  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1878,  by  Joseph 
Hodgson,  in  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  United  States 
for  the  Southern  District  of  Alabama. 


Digitized  by  tine  Internet  Arciiive 

in  2008  witii  funding  from 

IVIicrosoft  Corporation 


littp://www.archive.org/details/cradleofconfederOOIiodgricli 


TO 

Hon,    John    Foi\syth, 
OF  mobile, 

LATE   ENVOY  EXTRAORDINARY  AND  MINISTER  PLENIPOTENTIARY 
TO  THE  REPUBLIC  OB'  MEXICO, 

1  DEDICATE 

THIS  HISTORICAL  SKETCH, 

IN  GRATEFUL  REMEMBRANCE  OF  THE 

PATRIOTIC  SERVICES  OF  HIMSELF  AND  OF  HIS  DISTINGUISHED  FATHER, 

WHOSE  LIVES  HAVE  ILLUSTRATED 

THE 

PATRIOTISM   OF  SOUTHERN  STATESMANSHIP, 

AND  THE 

DIGNITY  OF  SOUTHERN  MANHOOD. 


PREFACE 


Time  has  borne  us  so  far  from  the  men  and  events  of  the  period  which 
ushered  in  the  fratricidal  war  of  1861-'5  that  it  is  well  for  a  new  genera- 
tion to  be  taught  the  truth  of  Southern  History.  It  is  not  amiss  to  review 
the  causes  which  produced  the  late  war,  and  by  examining  the  more 
humble  and  minute  incidents  of  local  discussion  and  action,  to  arrive  at 
a  correct  conclusion  as  to  the  motives  of  those  who  engaged  in  the  for- 
mation of  the  Southern  Confederacy. 

it  will  be  seen  from  the  following  imperfect  sketch  that  a  majority  of 
the  people  of  the  South  were  opposed  to  secession  in  1850,  and  even  in 
18G0 ;  that  the  Unionists  of  the  South  were  driven  from  their  position 
after  a  protracted  struggle,  not  so  much  by  the  advocates  of  disunion  at 
the  South  as  by  the  advocates  of  disunion  at  the  North ;  and  that  the 
great  mass  of  Southern  people  were  led  into  acceptance  of  the  Ordinance 
of  Secession  under  the  belief  that  the  remedy  they  thus  sought  against 
grievances,  would  be  acquiesced  in  by  the  people  of  the  Northern  States 
and  by  the  Federal  Government. 

The  author  will  not  have  had  his  labor  in  vain,  if  he  succeeds  in  saving 
from  the  wreck  of  time,  and  in  preserving  in  the  more  durable  form  of  a 
book,  many  facts  which  throw  light  upon  our  local  history,  and  which , 
after  a  few  years,  might  otherwise  be  lost  to  memory.  And  if  the  facts  ^ 
here  presented  should  aid  in  convincing  the  people  of  this  Republic  that 
the  SiQijith- Western  States,  were  driven  by  Northern  enemies,  rather  than 
by  Southern  leaders,  into  the  act  of  secession,  the  author  will  rest  satis- 
fled  that  he  has  contributed  one  important  aid  towards  an  obliteration 
of  sectional  misunderstanding,  and  towards  a  return  of  that  fraternal  / 
feeling  which  should  exist  between  peoples  bound  together  by  common 
language,  laws,  kindred,  and  commerce. 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTJBR  I The  City  of  Montgomery,  Alabama— The  Birthplace  of 

the  Confederacy— Extent  and  Situation  of  the  Original  Confederacy— 
Her  Resources  and  Population— Independent  Spirit  of  the  Slaye- 
Owner— Testimony  of  Edmund  'SurEe^The  Non-Slave-C^ners— 
TradFtlons  Inherited  from  Patrick  Henry-^Jealousy  9f  Stfttes3SIghls— 
TheTmmigraTTonfroin  Virginia— Displacement  of  the  Muscogees— 
Growth  in  Population  and  Wealth— The  Study  of  Oratory— Political, 
Customs,  Sociar Habits— General  Quitman's  Description  of  a  South- 
effl  HOTn«»^Stc;;  Etcr, 

CIIAPTElt  II.— Discovery  and  Settlement  of  the  Southwestr-Her- 
nando  DeSoto— Marquette,  Joliet,  and  DeSalle— Iberville,  Bienville, 
and  Sauvolle— The  French  In  Alabama,  Mississippi,  and  Louisiana— 
The  English  Successors  In  Alabama  and  Mississippi- The  Spaniards 
in  the  Gulf  States— Oglethorpe  and  his  Settlement  of  Georgia— Condi- 
tion of  the  Gulf  Country  at  the  Outbreak  of  the  Revolution— Strength 
and  Position  of  the  Indian  Tribes— Etc.,  Etc. 

CHAPTER  Ill-Growth  of  the  Idea  of  Secession- Jealousy  of^t^ne 
Qommerclal  Against  the  Agricllltuyal  StatSB— Tffavigat.ion  ofnEHe'Mis- 
sissip^r- The  Whiskey  Rebellion— TheTTay  Treaty- Views  ofjfjlstjhn- 
guished  men— Frequent  Threats  and  Hopes  of  Disunion— The  Loulsl- 
fbtrarPurgrmse— The  East  Fears  the  South  and  West— The  Hartford 
Convention— The  Resolutions  of  '^8— "Rarrd<5ipil'8  Heply  to  Patrick 
Henry— Etc.,  Etc. 

CHAPTER  IV — Jurisdiction  of  the  United  States  Over  Indian  Tribes 
—The  Fee  Simple  of  Lands  Occupied  by  the  Tribes— The  Yazoo 
Frauds— The  Decision  in  the  Case  of  Fletcher  vs.  Peck— Indignation  of 
the  People  of  Georgia— Constitutional  Questions  Growing  Out  ofjthat 
Decision— Etc.,  Etc. 

1  CHAPTER  v.— Relation  of  the  Union  to  the  Indian  Tribes— Relation 
^  of  the  State  to  the  Tribes  Within  its  Limits— The  Gteorgia  Act  of 
Cession— Non-Observance  of  the  Contract  on  the  Part  of  the  United 
States— The  Treaty-Making  and  Commerce- Regulating  Power— Con- 
flicting Views  as  to  Indian  Rights— Practice  of  the  Northern  and 
Eastern  States— The  New  Theory  of  Equfility  oTRaces- Etc.,  JKtc! 

CHAPTER  VI The  Treaty  of  Indian  Springs— Murder  of  Mcintosh— 

General  Gaines  and  Governor  Troup— Threatened  Collision  of  State 
and  Federal  Forces— The  State  Sustains  Her  Position— The  Cherokee 
Nation— An  Appeal  to  the  Supreme  Court— Its  Writ  of  Error  Disre- 
garded—The Question  of  Coercion— Etc.,  Etc.^_ 


XIV 


CHAPTER.  VII.— South  Carolina  and  the  TariflT— ContinjaSiLContest 

Between  th  e  Agricultural  and  nomnaercialBtates— Calhounjjid  Nu  1- 

^ificatlbn—xne  jorce  Bill  and  the  Right  of  Coercion— Inconsistency 

of  ^President  Jackson— Calhoun's  Victory— Webster  Retires  from  the 

Battle— Real  Causes  for  the  Proclamation— Etc.,  Etc. 

CHAPTER  VIII.— Controversy  Between  Alabama  and  the  United 
States— Intrusion  on  the  Creek  Lands— Killing  of  Owens— Message  of 
Governor  Gayle— Threats  of  Resistance  to  the  Military— Resolutions 
of  a  Legislative  Committee— Mission  of  Key  to  the  State— Adjustment 
of  the  Difficulty— The  Federal  Government  Compromises  the  Ques- 
tion—Etc, Etc. 

CHAPTER  IX.— Tim-£fideral  Party  Reorganj_zej3Boii-tttc--Bkiyery 

._Q^uestion— Continued  War  upon  the  Agricultural  States— Opinions  of 

_the  SouthernPeople  as  to  Slavery— The  Missouri  Compromise— TEe^ 

Slade  AgilatiTm^^^^TTie  Abolitionist,    George  Thompson— Views    of 

England— OBJJUQns  of  Jaj^kson.  Marcy.  Clay,  Everett  and  others-. 

Drawing  of  the  GeographicaTLine— EtcrrEtc.^"""" 

"DHAPTER  X— Position  of  the  South  During  the  Van  Buren  and  Har- 
rison Administration— Relation  and  Tenets  of  Parties  from  1840  to 
1850— ^pre  Territory  for  the  South— New  Threats  of  Division  at  the 
North— The  ^IfeilURn  W  ill'— Quitman  and  the  Palmettoes— OfTer  of  the 
Mexican  Crown  to  General  Scott— Condition  ofj,._MQiigrel-^opula- 

CHAPTER  XI ^Wm.  L.  Yancey  and  the  Montgomery  District— The 

Alabama  Democratic  Resolutions  of  1848— General  Cass  and  the 
States-Rights  Party— The  Nashville  Convention  and  Defeat  of  Seces- 
sionists—The Compromise  Measures  of  Clay— Triumph  of  the  Union 
Party  all  Over  the  South— Defeat  of  Governors  Seabrook  and  Quit- 
man—The  Georgia  Resolutions— Union  Leaders  and  Sentiment  in 
Alabama— Etc. ,  Etc. 

CHAPTER  XII— The  Montgomery  District— Contest  of  States- Rights 
and  Union  Men  over  Yancey— The  Georgia  Platform— Yancey  Retires 
and  Cochran  Takes  His  Place— Report  of  the  Southern  Rights  Associ-  , 
ation— Defeat  of  the  Yancey  Party— Scheme  to  Acquire  Cuba— Lopez 
and  Quitman— Federal  Arrest  of  a  Governor— Reorganization  of  Par- 
ties—The Southern  Whigs- The  Whig  Convention  at  Baltimore- 
Reply  of  Scott  and  Pierce  to  the  States-Rights  Associations— Etc.,  Etc. 

CHAPTER  XIII The  Kansas-Nebraska  Bill— Preparing  for  Battle 

over  the  Outpost— Sharpe  Rifles— Emigrant  Societies— Rise  of  the 
American  Party— Fillmore  and  Buchanan  in  the  Southwest— Political 
J^lements  of  the  Elections  of  1856— Etc.,  Etc. 

CHAPTER  XIV— The  Dred  Scott  Decision— Condition  of  Parties  in 
1858— JCheJrrepressible  Conflict— The  John  Brown  Raid— Leagues  of 
United^outnOTnerg^^^nw "SoTTthern  Commercial  Convention— Debate 
Between  Yancey  and  Pryor— Precipitating  the  Cotton  States  into 
Revolution— Etc..  Etc. 

CHAPTER  XV.— Instructions  to  Alabama  Delegates— Action  of  the 
Alabama  Legislature— Views  of  Forsyth,  White  and  others— Meeting 
of  the  Charleston  Convention— Yancey's  Great  Address— Withdrawal 
of  Southern  Delegates— Position  of  Political  Parties— Yancey  at  Balti- 
more—He is  offered  the  Vice-Presidency— Nomination  of  Breckin- 
ridge—Etc.,  Etc. 


XV 


CHAPTER  XVI.— The  Canvass  in  Alabama— Assaults  upon  Yancey 
—Position  of  the  Three  Contestants— Yancey's  Canvass  of  the  West  • 
and  North— His  Arrival  at  Memphis— Reception  at  Knoxville— Speech 
at  Washington— Attempted  Fusion  In  New  York— Yancey  at  New 
Yorit- His  Speech  in  Faneuil  Hall,  at  Lexington,  and  at  New  Or- 
leans—Return of  Yancey  and  Visit  of  Douglas  to  Montgomery— Etc. 

CHAPTER  XVII.— Election  of  Lincoln— Reception  of  ti^e  News- 
Mass  Meeting  at  Montgomery— Tftlicey^'©eciaTes"for  Secessioiv^rii e 
People  Taught  that  Secession  will  be'Peaceable— Co-operationists  and 
S6cesgIoni8ty-^TEe  Crittenden~T5om promise— Its  Rejection  and  De- 
feat—Etc, Etc. 

CHAPTER  XVIII— Effect  of  Seward's  Speech—The  Vote  for  Delegates 
to  the  Secession  Convention— Meeting  of  the  Alabama  Convention- 
Caucus  at  Washington— Excitement  in  the  Convention— Parties 
Nearly  Equally  Divided— Refusal  to  Submit  the  Ordinance  to  the 
People— Yancey's  Threatening  Speech— Counter- Threats— Etc.,  Etc. 

CHAPTER  XIX.— Adoption  of  the  Ordinance  of  Secession— PoEiiJaJi— 
Enthusjagm— Union  of  all  Classes  pfjffie "TeopTe^AssiemTnin g  of  the 
Southern  Congress  at  Montgomery— Arrival  of  President  Davis- 
Ratification  by  the  Alabama  Convention  of  the  Confederate  Consti- 
tution—Conclusion. 


THE 


Cradle  of  the  Confederacy 


CHAPTER   I. 


The  City  of  Montgomery,  Alabama — The  Birthplace  of  the 
Confederacy — Mxtent  and  Situation  of  the  Oriffinal 
Confederacy — Her  Resources  and  Population — Inde- 
pendent Spirit  of  the  Slave- Owner — Testimony  of 
JEdmund  BurTce — The  Won  Slave- Owners — Traditions 
Inherited  from  Patrick  Henry — Jealousy  of  State 
Bights — The  Immigration  from  Virginia — Displace- 
ment of  the  Muscogees — Growth  in  Population  and 
Wealth — The  Study  of  Oratory — Political  Customs — i 
Social  Habits — General  Quitman^s  Description  of  a 
Southern  Home—Etc.^  Ute.,  Etc. 


"  If  slavery  was  an  evil,  it  bred  the  best  race  of  men  and  women  the 
world  ever  saw." 

Horatio  Seymottr. 

"  For  this  much  is  certain :  That  if  institutions  are  to  be  judged  by 
their  results  in  the  composition  of  the  councils  of  the  Union,  the  slave- 
holders are  much  more  ably  represented  than  the  simple  freemen." 
*  *  *  "In  the  progress  of  this  affair,  the  distinctive  character  of  the 
inhabitants  of  the  several  great  divisions  of  the  Union  have  been  shown 
more  in  relief  than  perhaps  in  any  national  transaction  since  the  estab- 
lishment of  the  Constitution.  It  is  perhaps  accidental  that  the  combi- 
nation of  talent  and  influence  has  been  the  greatest  on  the  slave  side." 

John  Quincy  Adams. 

"  He  is  a  gentleman  of  the  South ;  they  have  no  property  but  land; 
and  I  am  told  his  territory  was  immense.  *  *  *  It  is  not  unlikely  he 
may  have  lost  his  estates  now;  but  that  makes  no  difference  to  me.  I 
shall  treat  him,  and  all  Southern  gentlemen,  as  our  fathers  treated  the 
emigrant  nobility  of  France." 

DiSKAEiii,  in  Lothair. 

It  was  on  the  eventful  evening  of  Saturday,  February 
16th,  1861,  that  an  immense  crowd  of  human  beings, 
of  all  classes,  sexes  and  colors,  thronged  the  streets  of 
the  little  city  of  Montgomery,  in  the  State  of  Alabama, 


w 


•/^. .     , ;  •  TRE^  ^JRAdle;  qf  the  confedeeacy. 

and  congregated  in  front  of  the  Exchange  Hotel,  which 
overlooks  the  broad  mart.  The  occasion  ibr  this  im- 
mense assemblage,  whose  shouts  of  exultation  rent  the 
air,  was  the  arrival  in  that  city  of  the  President  elect 
of  the  Confederate  Slates — Jefferson  Davis. 

In  obedience  to  the  call  of  the  people  who  had  assem- 
bled to  greet  him,  Mr.  Davis  appeared  upon  the  balcony 
of  the  hotel,  accompanied  by  many  distinguished  men, 
whose  names  had  long  been  eminent  in  the  annals  of 
the  Union,  and  who  were  yet  to  become  even  more  dis- 
tinguished in  the  history  of  the  ill-fated  Confederacy. 

Prominent  among  them  was  William  Lowndes  Yancey. 
Introducing  Mr.  Davis  to  the  assembled  multitude,  the 
voice  of  the  greatest  orator  ever  produced  by  the  South 
rung  out  like  the  notes  of  a  clarion — "The  hour  and  the 
man  have  met .'" 

The  place  of  this  remarkable  meeting,  Montgomery, 
was  then  a  small  city  of  twelve  thousand  inhabitants, 
standing  at  the  navigable  head  of  the  Alabama  river, 
and  in  the  heart  of  that  fertile  band  of  rolling  and  wooded 
prairies  which  stretches  itself,  averaging  a  width  of 
seventy-five  miles,  from  the  waters  of  the  Savannah  to 
those  of  the  Mississippi. 

Here  is  the  great  cotton  belt  of  the  Gulf  States. 
Here  is  grown  the  larger  proportion  of  the  cotton 
production  of  the  United  States.  Here  it  was  that  broad 
plantations  covered  the  fairest  land  under  the  sky;  where 
great  wealth  accumulated,  and  where  was  developed  that 
highest  and  best  pride  of  humanity  which  accompanies 
the  possession  of  vast  landed  estates. 

The  beautiful  city  of  Montgomery  was  the  brightest 
of  gems  upon  the  belt  of  this  fertile  and  happy  region. 
Midway  between  the  Gulf  and  the  Tennessee,  between 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.        3 

the  Savannah  and  the  Mississippi,  she  held  the  key  to 
the  Gulf  States.  North  of  her,  and  extending  to  the 
Tennessee,  was  a  rolling  country,  rich  in  metallic  ores, 
with  fertile  valleys,  salubrious  climate,  and  health-giving 
waters.  South  of  her,  the  broad  cotton  lands  rolled 
down  to  meet  the  pine  forests  of  the  coast,  whose  wealth 
of  timber  was  fringed  by  groves  of  magnolia  and  orange. 

It  was  the  habit  of  many  who  were  proud  of  the 
extent  of  the  Union  to  deride  the  Confederacy  at  its 
earliest  organization,  when  it  embraced  only  the  first 
seven  seceding  States,  because  it  was  so  small  a  fraction 
of  the  United  States.  There  was  no  occasion  for  derision 
or  contempt.  The  country  of  which  Montgomery  was 
the  immediate  centre,  covered  an  area  as  large  as 
England  and  France  combined. 

The  entire  country  of  which  she  was  then  the  capital, 
contained  more  than  half  a  million  square  miles,  or  more 
than  three  hundred  and  thirty-six  millions  of  acres.  It 
embraced  some  of  the  most  fertile  and  productive  land 
to  be  found  in  either  hemisphere,  situated  in  a  mild  and 
healthful  climate.  It  lay  circlinjo-  half  around  a  vast 
inland  sea,  which  covers  a  surface  nearly  as  extensive  as 
the  Mediterranean,  and  draining  river  basins  unparalleled 
in  size  and  variety  of  products  by  any  of  those  of  the 
Eastern  hemisphere. 

This  territory,  of  which  Montgomery  was  the  capital, 
is  more  extensive  than  the  combined  areas  of  France, 
Great  Britain,  Prussia,  Bavaria,  Belgium,  and  the  Neth- 
erlands— countries  which  contain  more  than  one  hundred 
and  five  millions  of  inhabitants.  It  produces  every 
commodity  which  is  adapted  to  the  soil  and  climate  of 
these  populous  European  nations;  and  yields,  besides, 
the  valuable   staples — cotton,    sugar  and   rice.      Its 


4        THE  CBADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

mountains  are  rich  with  coal  and  iron,  which  lie  close 
to  the  sea,  and  are  easy  of  manipulation.  At  a  lower 
price  than  elsewhere  it  is  able  to  grow  all  the  cotton 
needed  for  the  world.  Its  production  of  rice  and  sugar 
is  limited  only  by  the  amount  of  labor.  Its  timber  for 
ship  and  house  building  is  the  most  valuable  in  the 
world.  It  has  every  variety  of  climate,  from  the 
Appalachian  range  of  mountains  to  the  semi-tropical 
groves  of  Mobile  and  New  Orleans.  The  health  of  this 
vast  imperial  domain  stands  as  well  in  the  medical 
reports  as  that  of  any  other  section  of  the  Union. 

Such  was  the  site  of  the  city  in  which  was  established 
the  government  of  the  Confederate  States.  The  people 
who  joined  on  the  evening  of  February  16,  1861,  in 
joyful  greetings  to  the  President  elect  were  no  less  dis- 
tinguished than  the  soil  which  gave  them  birth.  They 
were  of  the  highest  type  of  the  Anglo-Saxon. 

Here  and  there  throughout  this  broad  dominion 
remain  undiluted  remnants  of  the  French  and  Spanish 
famihes  who  first  colonized  the  Gulf  Coast,  and  other 
Franco-Latin  vestiges  of  that  great  wave  of  adventurists 
which  the  empire  of  Charles  V  sent  forth  to  the  Indies 
and  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico;  but  these  feeble  off-shoots 
of  South  Europe  were  long  since  overshadowed  by  the 
great  Anglo-Saxon  immigration  which  planted  the 
banner  of  King  George,  under  Oglethorpe,  upon  the 
banks  of  the  Savannah;  which  swept  down  from  south- 
western Virginia  along  the  waters  of  the  Tennessee;  and 
which  followed  the  course  of  the  Ohio  and  the  Mississippi 
to  the  bluffs  of  Vicksburs;  and  Natchez. 

It  has  been  remarked  that  the  American  descendants 
of  the  English  Saxons  have  acquired,  as  a  race,  a 
variety  of  their  own :   that  in  complexion,  expression 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERA.OY.        5 

and  physique  they  now  dififer  perceptibly  from  the 
parent  stock.  Although  this  may  be  true  of  the  people 
of  the  more  northern  States,  it  cannot  be  held  true  of 
the  people  of  the  South.  In  the  latter  region,  and 
especially  in  those  sections  where  were  large  landed 
estates,  the  race  of  men  has  always  preserved  the  highest 
characteristics  of  their  English  ancestry." 

Whether  or  not  the  institution  of  African  slavery 
aided  in  the  development  of  this  highest  order  of  Saxon 
manhood,  has  been  a  disputed  question ;  but  we  have 
on  record  that  philosophic  testimony  of  Edmund  Burke, 
which,  during  the  civil  war  in  America,  arrested  general 
attention.  That  great  statesman,  seeking  to  dissipate 
the  hope  that  less  resistance  to  the  encroachments  of 
Great  Britain  would  be  found  in  the  Southern  colonies 
than  in  the  Northern,  uttered  this  language : 

"  There  is,  however,  a  circumstance  attending  the 
"  [Southern]  colonies,  which,  in  my  opinion,  counterbal- 
"  ances  this  difference,  and  makes  the  spirit  of  liberty 
"still  more  high  and  haughty  than  in  those  to  the 
"  Northward.  It  is,  that  in  Virginia  and  the  Carolinas 
"  they  have  a  vast  multitude  of  slaves.  Where  this  is 
"'  the  case  in  any  part  of  the  world,  those  who  are  free 
"  are  by  far  the  most  proud  and  jealous  of  their  freedom. 
"  Freedom  is  to  them  not  only  an  enjoyment,  but  a  kind 
"  of  rank  and  privilege.  Not  seeing  there  that  freedom, 
"  as  in  countries  where  it  is  a  common  blessing,  and  as 
"  broad  and  genial  as  the  air,  may  be  united  with  much 
"  abject  toil,  with  great  misery,  with  all  the  exterior  of 
"  servitude,  liberty  looks  among  them  like  something 
"  that  is  more  noble  and  liberal.  I  do  not  mean,  sir,  to 
"  commend  the  peculiar  morality  of  this  sentiment,  which 
"  has  at  least  as  much  pride  as  virtue  in  it;  but  I  cannot 


6        THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

^' alter  the  nature  of  man.  The  fact  is  so;  and  these 
"  people  of  the  Southern  colonies  are  much  more  strongly, 
"  and  with  a  higher  and  more  stubborn  spirit,  attached  to 
*'  liberty  than  those  to  the  Northward.  Such  were  all 
"  the  ancient  commonwealths ;  such  were  our  Gothic 
"  ancestors ;  such  in  our  days  were  the  Poles ;  and  such 
"  will  be  all  masters  of  slaves,  who  are  not  slaves  them- 
"  selves.  In  such  a  people  the  haughtiness  of  domination 
"  combines  with  the  spirit  of  freedom,  fortifies  it,  and 
"  renders  it  invincible." 

Throughout  the  cotton  belt,  where,  at  the  blast  of  a 
horn,  the  master  could  be  surrounded  by  a  regiment  of 
slaves,  the  spirit  of  freedom  and  domination  in  the 
descendants  of  the  Cavaliers  and  Huguenots  was  such 
as  to  develop  the  frame,  and  inflame  and  intensify  the 
pride  of  the  individual  to  the  highest  extent  known  to 
the  human  race.  Such  Herculean  deeds  of  valor  as 
were  drawn  forth  in  the  terrible  conflict  which  shook  the 
North  American  continent  testified  to  the  sagacity  of 
the  English  philosopher,  and  to  the  manhood  of  the 
Southern  Saxons. 

Nor  was  this  spirit  of  personal  dignity  and  inde- 
pendence confined  to  the  actual  slave-owners.  The 
non  slave- owners,  who  had  been  crowded  by  superior 
wealth  or  energy  from  the  rich  cretaceous  lands  of  the 
interior,  and  from  the  equally  rich  alluvium  of  the 
rivers,  and  who  had  taken  up  more  humble  abodes 
among  the  hills  of  north  Alabama,  or  in  the  pine 
forests  of  the  coast,  felt  an  equal  pride  in  that  distinc- 
tion of  race  which  made  the  8axon  a  master.  With 
such  jealousy  did  they  cherish  the  spirit  of  personal 
liberty  and  local  independence,  that  the  policy  which 
looked  to  the  extremest  license  of  State-rights  always 


THE  CRADLE  OP  THE  CONFEDERACY.        7 

found  among  them  the  most  enthusiastic,  the  most 
numerous,  and  the  most  persistent  supporters.  They 
received  no  pecuniary  advantage  from  AMcan  slavery, 
and  were  so  careless  as  to  its  continuance  that  at  no 
time  were  they  willing  to  enter  into  a  war  for  separation 
of  the  States  to  secure  its  firmer  establishment ;  but 
they  perceived  with  that  subtle  instinct  which  belongs 
to  the  average  Saxon,  that  the  overthrow  of  African 
slavery  would  leave  in  the  heart  of  their  State  a  host  of 
citizens  foreign  to  their  ideas,  antagonistic  to  their  labor, 
and  cherishing  under  the  influence  of  designing  leaders 
the  fretful  jealousy  of  race — a  jealousy  which  the  history 
of  mankind  had  shown  to  be  the  precursor  of  violent 
and  constant  hostility. 

These  non  slave-holders  were  not,  as  has  been  sup- 
posed, the  dupes  or  the  deluded  followers  of  the  slave- 
owner. They  were  so  numerous  as  to  control  the  politics 
of  the  State.  They  gave  political  leaders  to  the  slave- 
owners. From  their  midst  sprung  men  like  Patrick 
Henry,  Andrew  Jackson,  Calhoun  and  Clay.  They  gave 
warriors  of  renown,  at  whose  head  stands  Stonewall 
Jackson.  They  furnished  the  rank  and  file  of  armies, 
and  concluded  with  glorious  honor  a  contest  entered  into 
with  unanimity,  and  prosecuted  it  with  unparalleled 
devotion,  gallantry  and  endurance. 

The  ancestors  of  these  men  had  served  in  the  Revo- 
lutionary war,  and  had  won  the  independence  of  the 
colonies :  an  independence  which  they  were  so  careful 
not  to  surrender  to  a  new,  overshadowing,  government 
that  their  fears  of  the  proposed  Constitution  of  the 
United  States  could  only  be  allayed  by  the  then  clearly 
defined  and  clearly  understood  reservations  of  the 
annexed  amendments. 


8        THE  CEADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

LPatrick  Henry,  the  eloquent  commoner  who  infused 
this  spirit  into  the  masses  of  Southern  people,  perceived 
the  doubtful  constructions  which  ambitious  men  might 
place  upon  the  Federal  powers.  He  opposed  the  adop- 
tion of  the  Constitution.  Believing  that  in  a  national 
government  the  liberties  of  the  people  would  be  gradu- 
ally lost,  he  saw  that  the  only  hope  of  the  multitude  of 
Anglo-Saxon  people  who  were  destined  to  fill  this  conti- 
nent ^s  in  a  confederated  republic  of  independent 
StatesJ  Hence,  he  asked  in  the  Virginia  convention, 
"  Why  is  it  that  the  preamble  of  the  Constitution  is 
"made'  to  read  'we^  the  people,^  instead  of  'we^  the 
"  States  V  "  "If,"  he  declared,  "the  States  be  not  the 
"  agents  of  this  compact,  it  must  be  one  great,  consoli- 
"  dated,  national  government  of  the  people  of  all  the 
"  States."  He  protested  against  the  language  of  the 
preamble  as  containing  the  germ  of  absolutism.  Begin- 
ning with  this  solemn  protest,  the  wisdom  of  which  has 
been  justified  by  the  events  of  the  succeeding  eighty 
years,  the  Virginia  patriot  raised  a  warning  voice  which 
appears  to  us  of  to-day  the  inspiration  of  prophecy. 
The  checks  and  balances  of  the  three  co-ordinate 
departments  of  the  Federal  Government  appeared  to 
him  as  specious,  imaginary  balances — "rope-dancing, 
"chain-rattling,  ridiculous  ideal  checks  and  contriv- 
"  ances,"  which  could  be  annulled  by  the  power  of  Con- 
gress to  throttle  the  judiciary,  or  by  the  power  of  the 
President  at  the  head  ot*  a  standing  army  to  throttle 
States,  Congress  and  Courts.  "Can  he  not  at  the  head 
"  his  army  beat  down  every  opposition  ?  Away  with 
"  your  President,  we  shall  have  a  king :  the  army  will 
"  salute  him  monarch ;  your  militia  will  leave  you,  and 
"assist  in  making  him  king,  and  fight  against  you; 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  OONFEDERAOY.        d 

"  and  what  haye  you  to  oppose  this  force  V^  The  State 
-  legislatures  would  be  shorn  of  their  consequence,  being 
forbidden  to  legislate  upon  any  but  the  most  trivial 
afiairs.  They  are  not  to  touch  private  contracts,  and 
'^cannot  be  trusted  with  dealing  out  justice  between 
"  man  and  man."  A  stamp  act  was  authorized.  Federal 
collectors  could  seize  the  papers  and  property  of  citizens, 
and  call  in  the  army  to  enforce  the  most  dangerous  and 
alarming  practices.  The  Federal  judiciary  could  over- 
shadow the  States,  oppress  the  citizen  by  onerous  costs, 
summon  juries  from  a  great  distance,  and,  in  the  hands 
of  bad  men,  sustained  by  the  Federal  Executive,  could 
destroy  the  last  vestige  of  popular  government.  The 
State  was  at  the  mercy  of  a  Federal  judge — the  creature 
of  the  Federal  Executive.   -  ^ 

LXhe  fears  of  Patrick  Henry  were  those  of  the  people.| 
They  were  only  quieted  by  those  amendments  which 
were  supposed  to  studiously  guard  against  the  dangers 
which  he  had  portrayed  so  eloquently. 

From  this  orator  of  the  Revolution  the  people  of  the 
South  inherited  a  deadly  opposition  to  a  national  con- 
solidated government,  a  fear  of  concentrated  Federal 
power,  and  an  earnest  resolve  to  resist  to  the  last  the 
abrogation  of  State-rights.  The  slave-holder  and  the 
non  slave-holder  alike  were  inflamed  by  this  traditionary 
antagonism;  and  when  Lincoln  declared  after  his  election 
to  the  presidency  that  the  relation  of  a  State  to  the 
Federal  Government  was  simply  the  relation  of  a  QaUiii#' 
to,auSteig ;  and  when  Seward,  a  little  later,  declared  that 
old  things  had  passed  away  and  all  things  had  become 
new,  the  Anglo-Saxons  of  the  Gulf,  with  no  special 
reference  to  African  slavery,  except  as  an  incident  in 
the  impending   conflict,  arose  as  one  man,  from  the 


10       THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

mountains  to  the  sea,  and,  in  the  language  of  the  last 
battle-order  of  General  Gordon,  lowered  at  Appamattox 
the  Cross  of  St.  Andrews  only  amid  the  huzzas  of  victory 
and  before  a  routed  foe.  As  an  organization,  they  were 
conquered;  as  individuals,  they  were  still  freemen.  This 
spirit  of  personal  independence  and  pride  of  race  could 
not  be  crushed  by  the  most  appaUing  catastrophe  that 
ever  befell  a  people. 

The  central  and  most  fertile  lands  of  the  Gulf  States 
received  at  Augusta,  Georgia,  the  tide  of  immigration 
from  Virginia  and  the  Carolinas,  which  followed  swiftly 
upon  the  steps  of  the  departing  Muscogees.  This  noble 
tribe  of  Indians  (better  known  as  Creek  Indians,  from 
the  abundance  of  water  courses  upon  which  they  lived), 
in  the  year  1721  occupied  that  entire  country  from  the 
Savannah  to  the  Tallapoosa  and  Coosa  rivers,  which 
afterwards  became  the  garden  spots  of  Georgia  and 
Alabama.  In  1733  General  Oglethorpe  met  the 
Muscogees  on  the  bluff  of  Yamacraw,  on  the  Savannah. 
They  agreed  in  formal  council  to  yield  to  the  colonists 
all  the  lands  below  tide  water  between  the  Savannah 
and  the  Altamaha.  Six  years  later,  Oglethorpe  again 
visited  them  on  the  Chattahoochee,  and  by  a  new  treaty 
they  acknowledged  themselves  subjects  of  Great  Britain; 
ceding  to  the  English,  with  some  reservations,  the  coast 
fi'om  the  Savannah  to  the  St.  Johns  as  far  into  the 
interior  as  the  tide  flows.  During  the  American  Revo- 
lution the  Creeks  adhered  to  the  British.  After  the 
conclusion  of  peace  the  Georgians  claimed,  that  by 
treaties  concluded  in  1783,  1785  and  1786,  the  Mus- 
cogees had  ceded  to  Georgia  a  considerable  part  of  their 
lands  south'  and  west  of  the  Oconee.  The  Creeks, 
under  their  able  leader,  McGillivray,  whose  father  was  a 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.       11 

Scotchman,  denied  the  vahdity  of  these  treaties,  and, 
although  his  people  had  always  been  allies  of  the 
English  against  the  Spaniards,  they  now  entered  into 
close  relation  with  the  Spanish  government  of  Florida. 
They  numbered  6000  warriors,  and  were  well  supplied 
with  fire  arms.  In  1787  war  broke  out  between  them 
and  the  Georgians,  and  the  colonists  suffered  severely. 
In  1789  they  entered  into  negotiations  with  the  United 
States,  and  acknowledged  allegiance  to  the  Federal 
Government;  but  soon  after  broke  off  negotiations, 
and  renewed  hostilities  when  they  discovered  that  the 
commissioner  did  not  propose  to  restore  their  lands. 
By  the  treaty  of  1796  the  Creeks  admitted  the  eastern 
boundary,  as  defined  by  the  treaty  of  Hopewell  in 
1756,  "from  Tugals  river,  thence  a  direct  line  to  the 
-'  top  of  Currohe  mountain ;  thence  to  the  head  of  the 
"  south  fork  of  the  Oconee  river." 

Between  this  eastern  boundary,  and  the  western 
boundary  of  Line  creek  in  the  county  of  Montgomery, 
Alabama,  the  Creeks  cultivated  their  fertile  lands  in  a 
rude  way,  and  remained  at  peace  eighteen  years.  But 
at  the  outbreak  of  the  war  of  1812  with  Great  Britain, 
a  large  portion  of  the  nation — incited  it  is  said  by 
Tecumseh,  and  probably  receiving  encouragement  from 
other  quarters — took  arms  without  the  slightest  provo- 
cation, and  at  first  committed  great  ravages.  They 
received  a  severe  chastisement  at  the  hands  of  General 
Jackson,  and  in  August,  1814,  surrendered  a  large  part 
of  their  best  territory.  In  1818  they  made  another 
large  cession  of  lands,  and  in  February,  1825,  they 
ceded  all  their  lands  in  Georgia.  On  March  2,  1832, 
the  Creeks  ceded  to  the  United  States  all  their  lands 
east  of  the  Mississippi. 


i2  THE  CitADLE  OP  THE  CONFEDERACY. 


It  was  thus  that  during  the  first  quarter  of  the  present 
century  the  immigration  from  Virginia  and  the  CaroHnas, 
crossing  the  Savannah  at  Augusta,  pushed  before  it  the 
fated  Muscogees,  until  finally  by  treaty  and  by  battle 
driving  the  savages  beyond  the  Mississippi,  they  spread 
the  broad  wave  of  civilization  and  industry  over  the 
entire  Gulf  States. 

This  occupancy  was  not  marked  by  the  circumstances 
of  frontier  life.  It  met  upon  the  west  below  and  beyond 
Montgomery  an  old  and  refined  society  which  had  been 
planted  by  Iberville  and  Bienville,  and  which  had 
received  accessions  from  the  fugitives  of  Waterloo.  It 
brought  with  it  the  wealth,  energy  and  enlightenment 
of  half  a  century  of  industry  upon  the  banks  of  the 
Savannah,  the  memories  of .  the  American  Revolution, 
and  the  manly  independence  and  honesty  which  had 
been  engendered  by  the  political  education  of  middle 
Georgia. 

Thirty  years'  use  of  the  cotton  gin  had  raised  to 
wealth  and  respectability  persons  who  before  the  intro- 
duction of  Whitney's  invention,  had  been  depressed  by 
poverty  and  sunk  in  idleness.  Debts  had  been  paid  off. 
Slaves  had  been  imported  in  great  numbers  under  the 
clause  of  the  Federal  Constitution  which  forbid  the 
discontinuance  of  the  African  slave  trade  until  1807. 
Capital  had  increased.  The  sons  of  the  planters  had 
been  liberally  educated  at  Cambridge,  New  Hav(^n, 
Litchfield,  Princeton  and  Charlottesville.  Lands  had 
grown  enormously  in  value,  and  railroads  were  even 
had  in  contemplation  to  convey  to  Savannah  and 
Charleston  the  cotton  bales  of  that  broad  belt  which 
reached  from  the  Savannah  to  the  Mississippi. 

The  parish  of  St.  Paul,  which  wata  afterwards  known  as 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.       13 

the  county  of  Richmond,  and  from  which  the  county  of 
Columbia  was  constructed,  was  one  of  the  wealthiest  in 
the  State  of  Georgia.  Its  county  seat,  Augusta,  was 
the  centre  of  a  very  populous  and  prosperous  com- 
munity. Among  its  eminent  sons  it  numbered  such 
men  as  Edward  Telfair,  William  H.  Crawford,  John 
Forsyth,  Richard  Henry  Wilde,  William  Gumming, 
the  Holts,  Longstreets,  Glasscocks,'  the  two  Generals 
Twiggs  (father  and  son),  Abram  Baldwin,  Nicholas 
Ware,  George  Walton,  John  Milledge,  Freeman  Walker 
and  Thomas  W.  Cobb. 

Within  the  limits  of  the  present  county  of  Columbia 
was  Carmel  academy,  which  was  for  some  years  con- 
ducted by  the  celebrated  Dr.  Wad  Jell.  At  this  academy 
John  C.  Calhoun,  William.  H.  Crawford  and  Thomas  W. 
Cobb  were  pupils.  Here  Calhoun,  supported  by  the 
proceeds  of  his  own  labor  alone,  was  prepared  in  two 
years  for  the  junior  class  of  Yale  college. 

Immediately  after  the  Revolution  this  region  received 
a  large  accession  of  population  from  Virginia.  The 
leader  of  this  wave  of  immigration,  George  Mathews, 
a  man  of  sterling  worth,  bat  of  limited  education,  had 
been  colonel  of  the  9th  regiment  of  Virginia  troops 
in  the  continental  service.  His  knowledge  of  frontier 
life  recommended  him  to  the  notice  of  Gen.  Washing- 
ton, and  at  the  head  of  his  regiment  he  distinguished 
himself  at  Germantown.  He  was  high  in  favor  with 
the  army  as  a  vigorous  and  undaunted  officer.  In 
1785  Col.  Mathews  purchased  a  tract  of  land  on  Broad 
river,  and  removed  to  it  with  his  family.  By  his 
advice,  Traviss  Merri wether,  Benj.  Taliaferro,  Peachy 
Gilmer  and  John  Gilmer  also  emigrated  from  Virginia 
to  the  same  region.    These  families  became  prosperous, 


14       THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERAGY. 

rose  to  distinction,  gave  governors  to  Georgia,  and  were 
honored  by  having  their  names  perpetuated  in  counties. 

Mathews  was  the  principal  man  of  all  that  section.  His 
military  reputation  made  him  governor  of  Georgia  one 
year  after  his  settlement  in  the  State.  He  had  become 
personally  known  to  the  people  some  years  before  while 
serving  under  Gen.  Greene.  From  1785  to  1795  the 
lands  upon  Broad  river  were  settled  mainly  by  the  friends 
and  relatives  of  Mathews  and  those  who  first  accom- 
panied him  from  Virginia.  The  descendants  of  these 
Virginians  followed  the  retiring  Muscogees,  and  settled 
in  the  heart  of  the  richest  prairies  between  the  Chatta- 
hoochee and  Line  creek  in  Alabama. 

This  society  of  middle  Georgia,  born  in  the  hills  of 
Virginia  and  nurtured  upon  the  banks  of  the  Savannah, 
extended  in  full  vigor  to  the  fresher  lands  of  central 
Alabama. 

The  men  of  this  region,  fi-om  the  beginning  of 
the  century  to  its  fifth  decade,  were  such  as  no  country 
ever  saw  before;  and  such  as,  it  may  be  feared,  will 
perhaps  never  be  seen  again.  The  first  settlers  were 
comparatively  rude  and  uncultivated.  The  eight  years 
of  Revolution  had  debarred  an  entire  generation  fi-om 
all  education  except  that  of  the  camp  and  the  battle 
field.  There  was  then  no  rapid  road  to  wealth.  Some- 
what later,  however,  the  cotton  gin  added  new  value  to 
agricultural  labor,  and  began  to  bring  gold  into  the 
hands  of  the  planter.  The  log  cabin  soon  gave  way  to 
the  substantial  framed  house,  or  to  the  more  pretentious 
country  mansion  surrounded  by  elegance  and  taste. 
The  squad  of  slaves  increased  into  companies  and  regi- 
ments;   school  houses  and   churches  arose   in   every 


THE  CBADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDEEACY.       15 

settlement,  and  the  trading  villages  swelled  into  wealthy 
commercial  towns. 

The  population  was  almost  entirely  agricultural. 
There  were  few  mechanics,  and  but  a  small  number 
engaged  in  commercial  pursuits.  The  professions  were 
not  crowded.  Although  the  sons  of  planters  generally 
pursued  legal  studies,  it  was  seldom  with  a  view  to 
active  practice ;  more  generally  it  was  to  serve  as  an 
entrance  to  political  life. 

Sir  James  Mackintosh,  speaking  of  the  English 
nobility  as  the  most  powerful  order  of  men  in  Europe, 
surrounded  by  every  circumstance  which  might  seem 
likely  to  fill  them  with  arrogance,  and  to  teach  them  to 
scorn  their  inferiors,  and  which  might  naturally  be 
supposed  to  extinguish  enterprise  and  to  lull  every 
power  of  the  understanding  to  sleep,  has  asked  the 
question :  "  What  has  preserved  their  character  ?  what 
"makes  them  capable  of  serving  or  adorning  their 
"  country  as  orators  and  poets,  men  of  letters  and  men 
^'  of  business,  in  equal  proportion  to  the  same  number 
"  of  men  in  the  commercial  and  professional  pursuits  of 
"life  ?"  The  answer  is:  Where  the  ordinary  incentives 
to  action  are  withdrawn,  a  free  constitution  excites  it  by 
presenting  political  power  as  a  new  object  of  pursuit. 
By  rendering  that  power  in  a  great  degree  dependent 
on  popular  favor,  it  compels  the  highest  to  treat  their 
fellow-creatures  with  decency  and  courtesy,  and  disposes 
the  best  of  them  to  feel  that  inferiors  in  station  may  be 
superiors  in  worth,  as  they  are  equals  in  right.  What 
is  true  of  the  English  nobihty,  was  true  of  the  most 
opulent  and  well-born  of  the  Southern  planters.  They 
looked  to  the  people  at  large  for  preferment,  and  from 
a  nearer  plane.     The  richest  among  them  had  been 


16       THE  ORABLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

poor  but  recently,  and  the  most  aristocratic  in  feeling 
could  boast  of  no  ancestry  which  antedated  the  Revo- 
lution in  distinction.  The  only  aristocracy  which  could 
maintain  itself  was  one  either  of  wealth  or  genius.  But 
as  wealth  was  an  accident  to  which  any  one  might 
attain,  and  as  the  honors  of  the  Republic  lay  within 
the  reach  of  the  youth  born  in  poverty  equally  with 
him  who  was  born  in  opulence,  it  became  essential  that 
the  men  who  sought  the  ear  and  favor  of  the  people 
should  cultivate  all  the  graces  and  courtesies  which  are 
found  among  the  political  aspirants  of  England.  Ora- 
tory was  cultivated  as  the  most  effective  means  to  reach 
the  popular  ear.  Newspapers  being  rare,  the  rostrum 
became  the  source  of  political  information,  and  a  people 
who  had  ample  leisure  delighted  to  witness  the  contests 
of  the  intellectual  gladiators. 

There  was  no  official  dishonesty  in  those  days.  To 
be  suspected  even  of  selfishness  in  office  was  to  be  dis- 
carded from  public  favor.  The  voice  of  the  people  was 
supreme.  No  officer  dared  set  himself  above  the  wishes 
of  his  constituents,  nor  resist  the  power  of  public  opinion. 
The  man  with  clean  hands  was  caressed  and  honored. 
The  man  with  soiled  hands  sunk  to  obs'curity,  and  died 
in  shame.  The  peculiar  election  laws  of  Virginia  had 
moulded  a  lofty  public  sentiment,  and  impressed  upon 
her  children  in  the  other  Southern  States  a  purity  of 
political  morals  which  lives  now  only  in  tradition.  The 
manner  of  voting  was  viva  voce.  The  voter  was  a  free- 
holder. On  the  day  of  election  the  candidates  sat  with 
the  judges,  and  in  turn  harangued  the  multitude  in 
elevated  and  courteous  language.  The  free-holder  in  an 
open,  frank  and  manly  manner  announced  his  prefer- 
ence.    He  had  a  choice,  and  he  was  brave  enough  to 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.       17 

let  the  world  know  it.  There  was  no  equivocation, 
double-dealing  and  shuffling.  It  was  the  voter's  pride 
that  he  sustained  great  fundamental  principles,  or 
honored  men  of  great  worth,  or  maintained  the  dignity 
of  his  State  in  the  Union  by  elevating  to  representative 
positions  the  wisest  and  the  best  in  the  land.  In  the 
dignity  and  worth  of  his  governor  or  representative  in 
Congress  he  recognized  his  own  importance.  He  blushed 
with  shame  at  an  unworthy  representative.  So  strong 
had  become  the  pride  of  the  voter,  and  so  firmly  rooted 
had  become  this  elevated  view  of  statesmanship,  that  it 
remained  steadfast  long  after  the  subdivision  of  property 
and  the  gradual  extension  of  suffrage  to  the  non-land- 
owner. This  lofty  sentiment  accompanied  the  Virginian 
and  Carolinian  wherever  he  went.  It  was  renewed  and 
strengthened  by  the  aristocratic  tendency  of  African 
slavery.  It  made  him  the  most  independent  of  mankind. 
He  was  the  patron  of  the  politician  and  statesman,  and 
not  the  recipient  of  governmental  favors  and  bounty. 
He  bore  himself  with  all  the  majesty  of  the  perfect 
freeman,  dispensed  a  generous  hospit;ality,  and  displayed 
a  lofbiness  of  soul  which  respected  and  alleviated  honest 
misfortune.  He  was  quick  to  rebuke  an  unworthy  act, 
and  to  revenge  the  slightest  affront.  He  was  haughty 
to  the  proud,  kind  to  the  unfortunate,  gentle  to  the 
poor,  stubborn  in  opinion,  patient  under  affliction,  and 
unostentatious  in  prosperity.  He  was  a  fair  specimen 
of  a  class  of  men  which  could  be  developed  only  by 
great  agricultural  prosperity,  under  a  system  of  laws 
which  encouraged  and  compelled  the  highest  exhibition 
of  political  candor  and  boldness. 

Although  the  generation  which  immediately  followed 
the  Revolution  was  comparatively  rude  and  uncultivated, 


48       THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

it  possessed  those  splendid  qualities  of  patriotism,  pa- 
tience, and  endurance  which  invariably  lay  broad  and 
deep  the  foundations  of  States.  In  the  midst,  and  im- 
mediately under  the  shadow,  of  great  events  the  human 
mind  becomes  more  comprehensive  in  its  grasp,  and 
the  human  soul  more  enlarged  in  its  aspirations,  and 
more  steadfast  in  its  principles.  Nothing  impresses  the 
mind  more  permanently  with  the  glory  of  humanity 
than  the  exhibition  of  splendid  acts  of  devotion  occur- 
ring within  its  experience.  The  immortal  deeds  which 
shine  out  briUiantly  from  a  patriotic  war  stir  the  heart 
of  the  beholder  with  an  ambition  to  emulate  such 
virtue,  and  a  pride  in  being  worthy  to  claim  it  as  a  her- 
itage. When  the  political  causes  which  occasion  war 
have  been  lost  to  memory  in  the  mass  of  uncertain  his- 
torical facts,  the  deeds  of  gallantry  which  emblazoned 
its  annals  will  live  fresh  and  green  in  the  enthusiastic 
bosoms  of  succeeding  generations.  The  fathers  of  the 
Revolution  exhibited  in  their  struggle  for  freedom  the 
most  heroic  qualities.  The  mothers  forgot  the  feebleness 
of  their  sex  and  bore  with  fortitude  the  most  appalling 
dangers,  fi-om  the  open  foe,  the  secret  enemy  at  theii' 
door,  and  from  the  merciless  savage. 

In  the  Carolinas  and  in  Georgia  the  sufferings  and 
misfortunes  of  the  patriots  were  most  intense.  The 
army  of  Greene,  the  little  bands  of  Marion  and  SUi>i- 
TER,  struggled  against  fearful  odds,  and  at  times  seemed 
to  be  strugghng  against  destiny  itself  Such  patience, 
such  endurance,  was  the  cradle  of  a  race  of  men  of 
enlarged  intellect  and  iron  will.  They  were  found  in 
every  settlement  where  the  Continental  soldier  had 
hung  up  his  musket.  They  carved  an  empire  out  of 
the  forest ;  they  thrust  the  Indian  backward  towards 


THE  CRADDLE  OF  THE  CONFEERACY.       19 

the  Pacific.  They  organized  and  conducted  State  and 
municipal  governments  which  were  models  of  simplic- 
ity, vigor  and  purity.  There  were  but  few  books  in 
their  cabins;  but  the  lives  of  Washington  and  of  Ma- 
rion, by  Weems,  were  in  the  hand  of  nearly  every 
child.  The  events  described  in  these  little  books 
formed  the  character  of  the  rising  generation.  It  grew 
to  be  jealous  of  personal  dignity  and  anxious  for  the 
security  of  municipal  privileges.  It  chafed  at  the  inter- 
ference of  a  Federal  executive.  It  was  suspicious  of  a 
government  whose  authaity  was  not  derived  du-ectly 
from  themselves.  Above  all  it  yearned  for  military 
glory.  All  wars  were  popular  with  them  ;  and  no  pol- 
itician could  win  the  popular  applause  more  surely  than 
by  appealing  to  the  final  arbitrament  of  arms. 

The  succeeding  generation,  that  which  was  born  with 
the  present  century,  inherited  the  manly  qualities  of 
their  fathers.  To  these,  prosperity  added  education, 
with  its  refining  influences  and  its  expansion  of  the 
grasp  of  intellect.  With  them  society  was  simple  and 
orderly.  There  was  no  dissipation,  thriftlessness,  no 
want.     The  thief  and  the  beggar  were  rarely  known. 

The  slave  which  h^d  escaped  the  club  of  the  captor 
found  a  home  where  labor  was  accompanied  with  abun- 
dant food  and  clothing,  and  where  the  law  and  pubHc 
opinion  alike  protected  him  from  cruelty  and  oppres- 
sion. If  it  was  a  crime  to  have  brought  him  from 
Africa,  the  crime  did  not  rest  with  these  planters. 
Under  Oglethorpe,  slavery  had  been  prohibited  in  all 
Georgia,  stretching  fi-om  the  Savannah  to  the  Missis- 
sippi, but  the  greed  of  merchants  on  the  coast  and  of 
ship  owners  from  New  England,  abolished  the  prohibition 
and  engrafted  the  traffic  for  twenty  years,  even  on  the 


20       THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

face  of  the  Federal  Constitution.  Was  it  better,  in  the 
development  of  mankind,  that  this  race  should  have 
remained  in  Africa,  free  to  live  like  the  veriest  beasts 
they  slaughtered,  or  should  have  become  useful  as 
slaves,  under  an  enlightened  sky?  In  that  day  slavery 
was  regarded  as  an  evU — but  so  difficult  of  removal 
that  no  plan  was  ever  seriously  contemplated  for  its 
cure.  It  was  many  years  later  that  the  constant  as- 
saults upon  the  slaveholder  by  citizens  of  distant  States 
drove  him  in  his  pride  and  defiance  to  the  proposition 
that  slavery  was  a  moral,  political  and  social  blessing. 
Compared  with  his  situation  in  Africa,  slavery  was  un- 
doubtedly a  political,  moral  and  social  blessing  to  the 
slave.  Whether  it  was  such  to  the  master  will  remain 
one  of  those  vexed  questions  which  will  be  answered 
according  to  the  sentiments  with  which  habit,  educa- 
tion, prejudice  and  custom  have  clothed  each  one  of  us. 
Certain  it  is,  that  taking  the  slave-owning  planters  of 
that  day  as  a  body,  there  was  nowhere  under  the  broad 
sun  a  more  moral  race  of  men,  with  purer  and  more 
elevated  social  habits,  or  with  more  liberal  and  benign 
political  institutions. 

Major  General  Quitman,  a  native  of  New  York, 
wrote  in  1 822,  when  but  a  youth,  to  his  father,  the  fol- 
lowing description  of  Southern  life  : 

"  Our  bar  is  quartered  at  different  country  seats — 
"  not  boarding  ;  a  Mississippi  planter  would  be  insulted 
"  by  such  a  proposition,  but  we  are  enjoying''the  hospi- 
"  talities  that  are  offered  to  us  on  all  sides.  The  awful 
"  pestilence  in  the  city  brings  out,  in  strong  relief,  the 
"peculiar  virtues  of  these  people.  The  mansions  of 
"  the  planters  are  thrown  open  to  all  comers  and  goers 
"free  of  charge.     Whole  families  have  fi:ee  quarters 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.       21 

'^during  the  epidemic,  and  country  wagons  are  sent 
**  daily  to  the  verge  of  the  smitten  city  with  fowls,  veg- 
"  etables,  &c.,  for  gratuitous  distribution  to  the  poor.  I 
"  am  now  writing  from  one  of  these  old  mansions,  and 
"  I  can  give  you  no  better  notion  of  life  at  the  South 
"  than  by  describing  the  routine  of  a  day.  The  owner 
"  is  the  widow  of  a  Vir2;inia  gentleman  of  distinction — 
"  a  brave  officer  who  died  in  the  pubhc  service  during 
**  the  last  war  wirh  Great  Britain. 

"  She  herself  is  a  native  of  this  vicinity — of  Eng- 
'^  Hsh  parents,  settled  here  in  Spanish  times.  She  is 
"  an  intimate  friend  of  my  first  friend,  Mrs.  G.,  and  I 
"  have  been  in  the  habit  of  visiting  her  house  ever 
"  since  I  came  South.  The  whole  aim  of  this  excellent 
"  lady  seems  to  be  to  make  others  happy.  I  do  not 
"believe  she  ever  thinks  of  herself  She  is  growing 
"  old,  but  her  parlors  are  constantly  thronged  with  the 
"  young  and  gay,  attracted  by  her  cheerful  and  never - 
"  failing  kindness.  There  are  two  large  families  from 
"  the  city  staying  here ;  and  every  day  come  ten  or  a 
"  dozen  transient  guests.  Mint  juleps  in  the  morning 
"  are  sent  to  our  room«,  and  then  follows  a  delightful 
"  breakfast  in  the  open  veranda.  We  hunt,  ride,  fish, 
"  pay  morning  visits,  play  chess,  read  or  lounge  until 
"  dinner,  .which  is  served  at  2  p.  m.,  in  great  variety, 
"  and  most  delicately  cooked  in  what  is  here  called 
"  Creole  style — very  rich,  and  many  made  or  mixed 
"  dishes.  In  two  hours  afterwards  everybody,  white 
"•'  and  black,  has  disappeared.  The  whole  household  is 
"asleep— the  sze^^a  of  the  Italians.  The  ladies  retire 
"  to  their  apartments,  and  the  gentlemen  on  sofas,  set- 
"  tees,  hammocks,  and  often  gipsy  fashion,  on  the  grass 
"  under  the  spreading  oaks.     Here,  too,  in  fine  weather 


22       THE  CRADLE  OP  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

"the  tea-table  is  always  set  before  sunset;  and  then 
"  until  bedtime  we  stroll^  sing,  play  whist  or  croquet. 
*'It  is  an  indolent,  yet  charming  life,  and  one  quits 
"  thinking  and  takes  to  dreaming. 

"  This  excellent  lady  is  not  rich,  merely  independ- 
"  ent ;  but  by  thrifty  housewifery  and  a  good  dairy  and 
"  garden  she  contrives  to  dispense  the  most  liberal  hos- 
"'  pitality.  Her  slaves  appear  to  be  in  a  manner  free, 
''yet  are  obedient  and  polite,  and  the  farm  is  well 
"  worked.  With  all  her  gayety  of  disposition  and  fond- 
"  ness  for  the  young  she  is  truly  pious ;  and  in  her  own 
''  apartments  every  night  she  has  family  prayers  with 
"her  slaves,  one  or  more  of  them  being  often  called 
"  upon  to  sing  and  pray.  When  a  minister  visits  the 
"  house,  which  happens  very  frequently,  prayers,  night 
"  and  morning,  are  always  said ;  and  on  these  occasions 
"  the  whole  household  and  the  guests  assemble  in  the 
'^  parlor;  chairs  are  provided  for  the  servants.  They 
"  are  married  by  a  clergyman  of  their  own  color ;  and 
"  a  sumptuous  supper  is  always  prepared.  On  public 
"  holidays  they  have  dinners  equal  to  an  Ohio  barba- 
"  cue ;  and  Christmas,  for  a  week  or  ten  days,  is  a  pro- 
"  tracted  festival  for  the  blacks.  They  are  a  happy, 
"  careless,  unreflecting,  good-natured  race,  who,  left  to 
"  themselves,  would  degenerate  into  drones  or  brutes ; 
"  but  subjected  to  wholesome  restraint  and  stimulus  be- 
"  come  the  best  and  most  contented  of  laborers.  They 
"  are  strongly  attached  to  '  old  massa '  and  '  old  missus,' 
"  but  their  devotion  to  '  young  massa '  and  '  young 
"missus'  amounts  to  enthusiasm.  They  have  great 
"  family  pride,  and  are  the  most  arrant  coxcombs  and 
"aristocrats  in  the  world.  At  a  wedding  I  witnessed 
''here  last  Saturday  evening,  where  some  one  hundred 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.       23 

"and  fifty  negroes  were  assembled — many  being  in- 
"  vited  guests — 1  heard  a  number  of  them  addressed  as 
"  governors,  generals,  judges  and  doctors  (the  titles  of 
"  their  masters),  and  a  spruce,  tight-set  darkey,  who 
"  waited  on  me  in  town,  was  called  '  Major  Quitman.' 
"The  ^colored  ladies'  are  invariably  Miss  Joneses, 
"  Miss  Smiths,  or  some  such  title.  They  are  exceed- 
"  ingly  pompous  and  ceremonious,  gloved  and  highly 
"  perfumed.  The  ^  gentlemen '  sport  canes,  ruffles  and 
"jewelry ;  wear  boots  and  spurs ;  affect  crape  on  their 
"  hats,  and  carry  huge  cigars.  The  belles  wear  gaudy 
"  colors,  '  tote '  their  fans  with  the  air  of  Spanish  seno- 
"  ritas,  and  never  stir  out,  though  black  as  the  ace  of 
"  spades,  without  their  parasols. 

"  In  short,  these  '  niggers,'  as  you  call  them,  are  the 
"  happiest  people  I  have  ever  seen,  and  some  of  them, 
"  in  form,  features  and  movements,  are  real  sultanas.  So 
"  far  from  being  fed  on  '  salted  cotton  seed,'  as  we  used 
"  to  believe  in  Ohio,  they  are  oily,  sleek,  bountifully 
"  fed,  well  clothed,  well  taken  care  of,  and  one  hears 
"  them  at  all  times  whistling  and  singing  cheerily  at 
"  their  work.  They  have  an  extraordinary  facihty  for 
"  sleeping.  A  negro  is  a  great  night-walker.  He  will, 
"  after  laboring  all  day  in  the  burning  sun,  walk  ten 
"  miles  to  a  frolic,  or  to  see  his  Dinah,  and  be  at  home 
"  and  at  his  work  by  daylight  the  next  morning.  This 
''  would  knock  up  a  white  man  or  an  Indian.  But  a 
"  negro  will  sleep  during  the  day — sleep  at  his  work — 
' '  sleep  on  the  carriage  box,  sleep  standing  up ;  and  I 
"  have  often  seen  them  sitting  bare-headed  in  the  sun, 
"  on  a  high  rail  fence,  sleeping  as  securely  as  though 
"lying  in  a  bed.  They  never  lose  their  equipoise; 
"  and  will  carry  their  cotton  baskets  or  their  water  ves- 


24       THE  CRADLE  OP  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

"  selSj  filled  to  the  brim,  poised  on  their  heads,  walking 
"  carelessly  and  at  a  rapid  rate,  without  spilling  a  drop. 
"  The  very  weight  of  such  burdens  would  crush  a  white 
'*  man's  brains  into  apoplexy. 

"Compared  with  the  ague-smitten  and  suffering 
"  settlers  that  you  and  I  have  seen  in  Ohio,  or  the  sickly 
"  and  starved  operatives  we  read  of  in  factories  and  in 
"  mines,  these  Southern  slaves  are  indeed  to  be  envied. 
"  They  are  treated  with  great  humanity  and  kindness." 

This  is  a  true  picture  of  the  home  and  surroundings 
of  the  Southern  planter  of  that  day,  drawn  by  an  intel- 
ligent spectator  of  Northern  birth  and  education.  Such 
were  the  homes  of  Middle  Georgia  and  of  Middle  Ala- 
bama. If  the  character  of  the  people  was  not  marked 
with  that  quiet  refinement,  that  gentle  grace  and  per- 
fect command  over  every  movement  of  person  and 
every  expression  of  countenance  and  speech  which  be- 
longed to  the  older  communities  of  the  coast  cities,  and 
which  can  only  be  acquked  by  constant  contact  with 
the  highly  educated,  it  was  at  least  marked  with  an 
unselfishness  and  a  candor,  a  vigor  of  mind  and  a  pu- 
rity of  thought  and  action,  which  could  often  shame  and 
put  to  flight  the  cold,  calculating  spirit  of  the  fashion- 
able world.  It  was  not  an  aristocracy  of  education  and 
hereditary  wealth,  but  a  nobility  of  nature.  The  child 
obtains  the  imprint  of  character  from  the  mother.  The 
daughters  of  that  day  received  a  home  education. 
Their  constitutions  were  robust ;  their  health  vigorous. 
They  were  devoted  to  the  claims  of  home,  husband  and 
children.  They  were  affectionate,  industrious,  proud 
and  pious.  Their  world  was  the  home  circle;  and  their 
occupation  was  in  the  broad  field  of  domestic  duties. 
They  taught  their  sons  and  daughters  the  simple  purity 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.       25 

of  their  own  lives — the  former  to  look  upon  woman 
with  the  most  chivalric  tenderness,  and  the  latter  to 
cultivate  that  delicacy  of  sentiment  and  action  which 
takes  alarm  at  the  first  approach  of  whatever  is  coarse 
and  vulgar.  The  man  of  mean  conduct  was  despised 
and  discarded.  The  man  of  cruelty  was  shunned.  The 
drunkard,  the  liar,  the  libertine  was  ostracised.  The 
silly  and  the  froward  woman  was  rebuked,  and  she  who 
overstepped  the  bounds  of  maiden  propriety  lost  caste 
forever.  The  sHghtest  whisper  against  a  woman's  char- 
acter, if  true,  blasted  a  life  and  caused  the  heads  of  a 
family  to  hang  in  shame  for  generations ;  if  felse,  the 
life  of  the  accuser  paid  the  forfeit  for  an  accusation  so 
revolting  to  the  sentiment  of  the  domestic  circle. 

Religion  is  the  cement  which  holds  together  the 
constituent  elements  of  society.  The  generation  which 
immediately  succeeded  the  Revolution  lived  in  sparse 
settlements  and  was  cut  oif  from  the  word  of  God.  It 
would  seem  that  in  the  face  of  great  dangers  and  ca- 
lamities the  religious  element  would  be  strengthened, 
but  strangely  enough,  during  periods  of  war  familiarity 
with  death  appears  to  rob  the  grim  monarch  of  his  ter- 
rors. The  soldier  falls  with  the  triumphant  huzza  upon 
his  lips  and  a  smile  of  defiance  mocking  the  pallor  of 
the  last  adversary.  He  is  buried  with  the  honors  of 
war ;  a  volley  of  musketry  is  fired  over  his  grave,  and 
his  comrade,  with  a  single  tear  for  his  memory,  rushes 
in  another  hour  to  the  arms  of  a  like  fate.  With  the 
generation  which  succeeded  our  war  for  independence 
that  skepticism  and  infidelity  which  accompanied  the 
rise  and  progress  of  the  French  Revolution,  increased 
the  indifference  of  its  American  sympathisers  to  mat^ 
ters  pertaining  to  the  life  beyond  the  grave.    There  was 


26       THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONPEDERACY. 

still  another  reason  for  carelessness  in  religious  affairs ; 
men  high  in  authority  and  possessed  of  the  affections 
of  the  people  were  known  to  entertain  irreligious  opin- 
ions. Beside  this,  there  was  no  immediate  means  by 
which  such  an  unhealthy  condition  of  society  could  be 
remedied.  The  Parish  of  St.  Paul's  was  no  more.  The 
Anglican  Church  lost  its  power  and  popularity  with  the 
Revolution,  and  its  Episcopal  successor  had  not  only  to 
struggle  against  the  prejudice  which  had  attached  to 
the  relation  of  its  predecessor  with  the  English  govern- 
ment, but  against  the  stronger  prejudice  which  a  rude 
and  uncultivated  people  entertained  against  the  ritual. 
The  services  were  too  complicated,  the  forms  and  cere- 
monies too  cumbersome.  The  prayer-book  appeared  to 
them  to  require  as  much  study  as  an  Indian  dialect. 

John  Wesley  had  been  sent  by  the  Anglican  Church 
as  a  missionary  to  Georgia,  and  the  renowned  White- 
field  had  followed  him,  but  notwithstanding  their  labors, 
as  late  as  1769,  there  were  but  two  churches  in  Georgia, 
and  these  were  one  hundred  and  fifty  miles  apart. 
Soon  after  the  Revolution  the  Baptists  obtained  some 
foothold  on  Kiokee  creek  in  Columbia  county,  where 
was  established  the  first  Baptist  church  in  Georgia. 
The  first  Methodist  society  was  formed  in  Augusta 
as  late  as  1799.  It  may  be  said  that  for  twenty  years, 
or  one  generation  after  the  Revolution,  there  were  no 
churches  in  Georgia.  With  the  opening  century,  how- 
ever, when  the  introduction  of  the  cotton  gin  had  in- 
creased the  comforts,  wealth  and  opportunities  of  the 
people,  a  new  condition  of  rehgious  affairs  began.  The 
labors  of  Wesley  and  Whitefield  had  been  seed  sown 
in  fruitful  gi^ound,  destined  after  a  long  time,  but  finally, 
to  bear  abundant  fruit.      The  Baptists  and  Methodists 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.       27 

were  the  missionaries  of  the  Word.  The  simple  prac- 
tices and  faith  of  these  churches  adapted  themselves  to 
the  rude  customs  oi  the  early  settlers.  Devoid  of 
show  and  ceremony,  they  appealed  to  the  emotional 
nature  of  man.  Woman  is  more  religious  than  man, 
because  her  emotional  nature  is  more  delicately  organ- 
ized. So  an  appeal  to  the  emotions  more  readily  cap- 
tivates an  unlettered  and  simple  people  than  one  more 
highly  educated.  The  humble  ministers  of  God  passed 
to  and  fro,  holding  divine  services  in  the  log  school- 
houses,  in  the  cottages,  under  the  wide-spreading  trees 
beside  the  cool  springs.  They  inculcated  those  divine 
precepts  which  society  recognizes,  so  soon  as  announced, 
as  the  corner-stone  of  its  structure,  the  key-stone  of  its 
arch — to  love  one's  neighbor,  to  live  virtuously,  to  do 
no  wrong.  Here  and  there  churches  were  erected,  but 
churches  no  longer  could  contain  the  multitudes  who 
crowded  to  listen  to  the  men  of  God — men  often  of  the 
most  captivating  eloquence,  always  of  a  zeal  which  if 
it  could  not  arouse  the  attention  by  beauties  of  rhetoric 
and  logic,  wrought  the  heart  into  a  frenzy  by  the  elec- 
tricity of  enthusiasm.  To  accommodate  the  multitudes 
camps  were  resorted  to.  Great  arbors  covered  with 
brush,  and  under  which  were  rough  seats  of  logs  and 
coarse  boards,  constituted  the  audience  room.  Often 
several  preachers  were  occupied  in  exhorting  different 
congregations  at  the  same  hour.  From  morning  until 
midnight  the  groves  resounded  with  prayer  and  song. 
The  whole  country  assembled  at  these  meetings.  The 
tents  witnessed  the  most  profuse  hospitality.  In  the 
intervals  of  service  the  famiHes  of  the  neighborhood 
mingled  together,  and  as  the  conversation  was  naturally 
directed  towards  the  events  of  the  occasion,  the  con- 


28       THE  CUADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

duct  and  language  of  the  people  partook  of  a  religious 
discretion  and  fervor.  Amid  such  scenes  were  edu- 
cated the  most  exalted  sentiments  of  human  nature. 
From  such  a  presence  the  impure  of  heart,  the  disturber 
of  public  peace,  the  man  of  lasciviousness  and  violence 
slunk  abashed. 

The  memory  of  revolutionary  deeds  excited  this  peo- 
ple to  bravery ;  their  political  customs  educated  them 
to  candor  and  honesty ;  their  free  institutions  inflamed 
their  pride  and  independence ;  but  their  camp-meetings 
did  more  than  all  else  to  make  of.  them  a  peaceful,  or- 
derly and  virtuous  society. 


CHi^PTER  II. 


Discovery  and  Settlement  of  the  Southwest — Hernando  Be- 
Soto — Marquette,  Joliet  and  DeSalle — Iberville^  Bien- 
ville and  Sauvolle — The  French  in  Alabama^  Missis- 
sippi and  Louisiana — The  English  Successors  in  Ala- 
bama and  Mississippi — The  Spaniards  in  the  Gulf 
States — Oglethorpe  and  his  Settlement  of  Georgia — 
Condition  of  the  Gulf  Country  at  the  Outbreak  of 
the  Revolution — Strength  and  Position  of  the  Indian 
Tribes,  cfcc,  cfcc. 


**  Wliat  a  substratum  for  empire !  (Compared  with  wtilch  the  founda- 
tion of  the  Macedonian,  the  Roman  and  the  Britisli  sink  into  insignifi- 
cance. Some  of  our  large  States  liave  territory  superior  to  the  island  of 
Great  Britain,  whilst  the  whole  together  are  little  inferior  to  Europe 
itself.  Our  independence  will  people  this  extent  of  country  with  free- 
men and  will  stimulate  the  innumerable  inhabitants  thereof,  by  every 
motive,  to  perfect  tlie  acts  of  government  and  to  extend  human  happi- 
ness." 

David  Ramsey. 

"  The  time  will  come  when  one  hundred  and  fifty  millions  of  people 
will  be  living  in  America,  equal  in  condition,  the  progeny  of  one  race, 
owing  their  origin  to  the  same  cause,  preserving  the  same  civilization, 
the  same  language,  the  same  literature,  the  same  religion,  the  same 
habits,  the  same  manners,  and  imbued  with  the  same  opinions,  propa- 
gated under  the  same  forms." 

De  TOCQUEVIIiliE, 

Hernando  DeSoto,  a  native  of  Spain,  in  early  youth 
enlisted  under  the  banner  of  Pizarro,  and  acquired  dis- 
tinction in  the  conquest  of  Peru.  Returning  to  Spain, 
he  was  made  governor  of  Cuba  in  1538,  and  adalen- 
tado  of  Florida.  A  year  after,  he  sailed  for  Florida 
with  an  expedition  of  nine  vessels  and  six  hundred 
men.  It  was  his  ambition  to  establish  on  the  northern 
coast  of  the  gulf,  an  empire  equal  to  that  of  Peru  and 
Mexico.     The  story  of  his  adventure  is  soon  told. 


30       THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

Landing  at  Tampa  bay,  Florida,  he  marched  in  the 
direction  of  Tallahassee,  one  of  his  captains,  in  the 
mean  time,  having  discovered  the  Bay  of  Pensacola. 
Entering  Georgia,  he  crossed  the  Ockmulgee,  Oconee 
and  Ogechee  rivers,  and  marched  up  the  Savannah 
to  a  point  in  Habersham  county.  Thence  he  marched 
westwardly  across  Georgia  to  the  head  waters  of  the 
Coosa,  and  along  the  course  of  the  Oostenaula  to  the 
sight  of  the  present  town  of  Rome.  Still  moving 
down  the  Coosa  he  reached  the  Indian  town  of  Tal- 
lassee,  and  was  met  by  the  son  of  Tuskaloosa,  a 
powerful  chief,  whose  rule  extended  from  the  Coosa 
and  Alabama  to  the  Tombigbee.  Accepting  an  invita- 
tion from  Tuskaloosa,  DeSoto  met  the  great  chief  at  a 
village  upon  Line  creek,  in  the  county  of  Montgomery. 
Thence  he  passed  through  the  counties  of  Montgomery, 
Lowndes  and  Dallas,  and  crossing  the  Alabama,  moved 
southward  through  Wilcox.  Tuskaloosa,  the  chief  of 
the  Mobiles,  while  accompanying  DeSoto  in  this  march, 
secretly  dispatched  his  couriers  in  every  direction  to 
alarm  and  concentrate  his  warriors.  On  October  18, 
1540,  DeSoto  and  Tuskaloosa  arrived  at  the  capital  of 
the  chief,  the  town  of  Mobile,  situated  upon  the  north 
bank  of  the  Alabama,  at  Choctaw  blufi^  in  the  county 
of  Clarke.  It  was  here  that. DeSoto  was  attacked  by 
Tuskaloosa.  The  battle  lasted  nine  hours,  and  eighty- 
two  Spaniards  were  killed.  Forty-five  horses  were  also 
slain  and  the  camp  baggage  destroyed  by  fire.  The 
town  of  Mobile  was  burned,  and  it  is  said  that  Tuska- 
loosa perished  in  the  flames.  After  this  disastrous  vic- 
tory the  Spaniards  were  anxious  to  march  directly  for 
Pensacola,  where  their  ships  were  awaiting  them  with 
stores,  but  DeSoto,  unwilling  to  surrender  the  enter- 


THE  CEADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERAOY.       31 

prise,  took  up  his  march  toward  the  northwest,  passing 
through  the  counties  of  Clarke,  Marengo  and  Greene, 
and  at  last  reaching  the  banks  of  the  Black  Warrior, 
near  the  village  of  Erie.  It  was  there  that  he  was 
again  attacked  by  a  large  force  of  the  Mobiles,  sup- 
posed to  number  eight  thousand  warriors.  The  result 
was  like  that  of  all  the  contests  between  naked  savages, 
armed  with  bows  and  arrows,  and  cavalrymen,  armed 
with  guns.  The  Indians  were  driven  off*.  Crossing 
the  Tombigbee,  DeSoto  marched  westwardly  through 
Mississippi,  and  at  last  reached  the  great  father  of 
waters,  of  which  he  was  the  first  European  discoverer. 
His  ranks  had  been  thinned  by  constant  engagements 
with  the  brave  Indians  and  by  disease.  The  energy  of 
his  men  was  gone,  and  his  own  stout  heart  had  failed 
him.  In  May,  1542,  DeSoto  died  upon  the  banks  of 
the  Mississippi,  and  his  body  was  buried  in  the  waters. 
The  remnant  of  his  ill-fated  expedition  constructed 
boats  and  set  sail  down  the  river,  July  2,  1543.  But 
three  hundred  and  twenty  men  were  then  left  of  the 
army  of  one  thousand  who  had  sailed  fi-om  Cuba.  As 
they  descended  the  river  they  were  attacked  by  fleets 
of  canoes,  and  lost  twelve  in  killed  or  drowned,  and 
twenty-five  in  wounded.  In  sixteen  days  they  reached 
the  gulf  and  put  to  sea,  landing  at  Pannca,  on  the 
Mexican  coast,  September  10,  1543,  after  four  years 
of  wandering  through  Florida,  Georgia,  Alabama,  Mis- 
sissippi and  Arkansas.  Such  was  the  fate  of  the  first 
attempt  to  colonize  the  southwest. 

It  was  not  until  1673  that  a  new  attempt  was  made 
to  found  a  colony  of  Europeans  upon  this  gulf  coast. 
It  was  in  that  year  that  two  Canadians,  Father  Mar- 
quette, and  Joliet,.a  trader,  sought  the  great  father  of 


32       THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

waters,  of  which  they  had  heard  vague  rumors.  Leav- 
ing the  lakes,  they  ascended  Fox  river,  crossed  to  the 
Wisconsin,  and  niade  their  way  in  canoes  to  the  Mis- 
sissippi, and  southwardly  as  far  as  the  Arkansas. 
Joliet  returned  to  Quebec  and  announced  the  result  of 
his  explorations.  LaSalle  organized  an  expedition  and 
followed  the  Mississippi  to  the  gulf,  taking  formal  pos- 
session of  the  country,  April  9,  1682,  in  the  name  of 
King  Louis  XIV.  Upon  information  by  LaSalle,  of 
his  discoveries,  the  French  government  fitted  out  an 
expedition  to  assist  him  in  planting  a  colony  near  the 
Mouth  of  the  Mississippi.  They  saw  the  importance 
of  connecting  their  Canadian  possessions  by  a  chain  of 
colonies  and  military  posts  with  the  Gulf  of  Mexico. 
LaSalle's  little  fleet  failed  to  find  the  mouth  of  the 
great  river,  but  landed  the  expedition  upon  the  coast 
of  Texas.  There  a  colony  was  planted,  and  LaSalle, 
with  a  few  companies,  set  out  in  search  of  the  Missis- 
sippi. Doubt,  hardships  and  famine  led  to  his  murder, 
by  his  own  men,  on  the  headwaters  of  the  Trinity.  A 
few  of  the  adventurers  made  their  way  to  Canada,  and 
the  rest  perished  on  the  coast  of  Texas. 

Six  years  later  commences  the  history  of  the  three 
Canadian  brothers,  who  were  the  actual  founders  of 
Mississippi,  Alabama  and  Louisiana.  Iberville  had 
won  some  rank  as  a  naval  officer  in  the  service  of 
Louis  XIV.  He  was  commissioned  in  1868,  with  a 
small  fleet,  to  prosecute  the  search  instituted  by  La- 
Salle, and  was  accompanied  by  his  brothers,  Bienville 
and  SanvoUe.  Discovering  the  mouth  of  the  Missis- 
sippi, he  explored  the  river  some  distance,  penetrated 
the  lakes,  and  finally  established  a  colony  at  Biloxi. 
SanvoUe  was  appointed  governor,  and  Bienville,  lieu- 


THE    CRADLE  OF  THE  CX)NFEDEEACY.  33 

tenant  governor  of  Louisiana.  They  at  once  built  a 
fort  upon  the  Mississippi,  to  hold  the  river  against  the 
claim  to  the  entire  gulf  coast  set  up  by  the  Spanish 
Governor  at  Pensacola.  In  1701,  Bienville  broke  up 
the  establishment  at  Biloxi,  and  moved  the  colony  to 
Mobile  Bay. 

The  growth  of  these  feeble  settlements  was  slow,  and 
for  a  long  time  uncertain.  The  fear  of  the  savages, 
and  of  sickness  from  the  more  fertile  lands  of  the 
interior,  caused  the  colonists  to  hug  the  coast  closely, 
and  to  depend  for  subsistence  upon  barter  with  the 
Indians  and  upon  contributions  from  the  home  govern- 
ment Ten  years  after  Iberville  had  planted  his  flag  at 
the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi,  the  condition  of  the 
colony  of  Louisiana  was  extremely  precarious.  Of 
officers  and  soldiers  there  were  one  hundred  and  twen- 
ty-two, and  of  civilians  there  were  but  one  hundred 
and  fifty-seven.  In  1712,  the  King  of  France  granted 
Louisiana  to  one  of  his  favorites,  Crozat,  a  wealthy 
speculator,  who  hoped  to  build  up  a  splendid  name  by 
developing  this  extensive  re^on.  Crozat  sent  out  as 
governor  Lamotte  Cadillac,  who,  in  his  dispatches  to 
Count  Pontchartrain,  represented  Bienville's  colony  as 
being  "  a  mass  of  rapscallians,  from  Canada,  a  cufc-throat 
"  set,  without  subordination,  with  no  respect  for  religion, 
'*  and  abandoned  in  vice  with  Indian  women  whom  they 
"  prefer  to  French  girls."  This  picture  of  the  earliest 
settlements  of  the  gulf  coast  is  no  doubt  overdrawn, 
but  enough  of  it  is  true  to  convince  the  reader  that 
these  colonies  did  not  possess  the  enterprise  to  lay 
broad  and  deep  the  foundation  of  a  vigorous  govern- 
ment and  a  flourishing  commerce. 

While  they  remained  weak  and  apathetic,  the  Eng- 


34       THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDEIIA.CY. 

lish  colony  of  the  Carolinas  was  extending  its  arms 
westward  and  seeking  alliances.  That  colony  was 
forty-four  years  old  when  Crozat  assumed  charge  of 
the  gulf,  and  had  for  a  long  time  conducted  trade  with 
the  great  tribe  of  Muscogees,  who  extended  from  the 
Savannah  nearly  to  the  Warrior,  and  even  with  the 
brave  Chickasaws,  who  held  for  a  century  later  undis- 
puted sway  over  north  Mississippi. 

In  1716,  Bienville  established  a  military  post  at 
Natchez,  which  became  the  nucleus  for  the  settlement 
of  west  Mississippi.  This  was  the  only  inportant  event 
of  the  Crozat  regime.  In  the  following  year  his 
charter  was  annulled,  and  Louisiana  was  handed  over  to 
a  West  India  company,  of  which  the  celebrated  Law 
was  chief  director.  This  adventure  also  signally  failed, 
the  new  colonists  imitating  their  predecessors  in  hug- 
ging the  coast  and  abstaining  from  agriculture.  But 
war  accomplished  what  peace  had  failed  to  do.  When 
hostilities  began  between  Spain  and  France,  in  1719,  the 
French  saw  the  importance  of  strengthening  the  popu- 
lation and  resources  of  their  colony  if  they  would  save 
the  great  river  from  the  hands  of  the  Spaniard.  The 
home  government  ofiered  special  inducements  to  set- 
tlers, and  succeeded  in  increasing  the  population  of  the 
colonies  very  rapidly.  Negro  slaves  were  sent  over  in 
large  numbers,  and  the  cultivation  of  rice,  indigo  and 
tobacco  was  encouraged. 

After  the  peace  between  Spain  and  France  and  the 
spread  of  French  traders  more  frequently  through  the 
Indian  tribes,  the  collisions  between  them  and  the  Eng- 
hsh  traders  from  the  Carolinas  became  more  and  more 
serious.  Each  tried  to  inflame  the  savages  against 
the  other.     The  cordon  of  French  military  posts  ex- 


THE  CEADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.       35 

tended  at  this  time  from  Fort  Toulouse,  upon  the  Coosa, 
a  few  miles  north  of  the  present  city  of  Montgomery, 
to  La  Harpe's  Station,  upon  Red  River. 

The  Indians  complained  that  their  peltries  brought 
better  prices  from  the  English  than  from  the  French, 
and  that  the  goods  which  they  received  from  the  Eng- 
lish posts  were  of  better  quality  and  cheaper  price  than 
that  furnished  at  Mobile  and  New  Orleans.  Thus  early 
did  the  great  question  which  controls  civilized  nations, 
afiect  the  sentiments  of  these  savages.  The  Chicka- 
saws  and  the  Muscogees  allied  themselves  with  the 
English.  The  Choctaws  adhered  to  the  French,  and 
the  Alabamas  preserved  an  armed  neutrality.  Gov- 
ernor Perrier,  who  succeeded  Bienville,  in  a  dispatch 
to  the  home  government,  used  this  language  : 

"  The  English  continue  to  urge  their  commerce  into 
"  the  very  heart  of  the  province.  Sixty  or  seventy 
"  horses  laden  with  merchandise  have  passed  into  the 
'••  country  of  the  Chickasaws,  to  which  nation  I  have 
"  given  orders  to  plunder  the  English  of  their  goods, 
"  promishig  to  recompense  them  by  a  present." 

In  the  year  1728,  the  province  of  Louisiana  was 
guarded  by  800  soldiers,  and  employed  2000  African 
slaves  in  labor.  Her  exports  of  indigo,  cotton,  tobacco, 
grain  and  lumber  were  becoming  considerable.  This 
growth  in  agriculture  and  trade  was  clouded  but  not 
checked  by  the  massacre  by  the  Indians  of  the  Natchez 
settlement  during  the  following  year. 

The  English  Carolinas  were  desirous  of  interposing  a 
barrier  between  themselves  and  the  Spaniards  of  the 
Floridas  on  the  one  hand  and  the  French  of  Louisiana 
on  the  other.  To  carry  out  this  desire,  James  Ogle- 
thorpe proposed  to  establish  a  colony  upon  the  westeru 


36       THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

bank  of  the  Savannah.  In  February,  1733,  Oglethorpe 
landed  on  that  river  with  thirty  families,  numbering  one 
hundred  and  twenty-five  persons,  and  immediately  laid 
out  the  city  of  Savannah.  Calling  the  chiefs  of  the 
Lower  Creek  Nation  together,  he  obtained  from  them  a 
cession  of  all  the  lands  between  the  Savannah  and  the 
Altamaha.  During  the  following  year  this  colony  was 
increased  by  a  company  of  forty  Jews ;  of  three  hun- 
dred and  forty-one  Germans,  and  by  many  Scots,  who 
settled  at  Darien.  Two  years  later  the  town  of 
Augusta  was  laid  out,  and  a  fort  established  there.  At 
once,  Augusta  became  the  scene  of  an  active  trade  with 
the  Indians.  Over  six  hundred  whites  were  engaged 
in  this  trade.  A  highway  was  constructed  between 
Augusta  and  Savannah,  and  boats  plied  between  those 
towns  and  Charleston.  We  have  seen  how  feeble  were 
the  settlements  of  Bienville  after  an  existence  of  twenty 
years.  Only  five  years  had  elapsed  from  the  landing 
of  Oglethorpe,  befgre  the  colony  of  Georgia  had  re- 
ceived more  than  one  thousand  settlers  fi^om  the  trus- 
tees of  the  Company,  and  several  hundred  more  who 
came  at  their  own  expense. 

Tbe  rapid  growth  of  Georgia  alarmed  the  Spanish 
Government,  and  led  to  a  series  of  skirmishes  between 
the  English  and  Floridian  Spaniards.  Oglethorpe 
wisely  formed  alliance  with  the  Lower  Creeks.  In 
their  treaty  it  was  stipulated  that  no  one  but  the  trus- 
tees of  the  colony  of  Georgia  should  settle  the  lands 
between  the  Savannah  and  the  mountains.  The  Upper 
Creeks  being  under  French  and  Spanish  influence,  did 
not  unite  in  this  treaty.  They  never  recognized  the 
cessions  to  Oglethorpe  made  by  the  Lower  Creeks ;  and 
although  the  English  held  a  garrison  at  Ocfiiskee,  on 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.       37 

the  eastern  bank  of  the  Tallapoosa  river,  within  forty- 
miles  of  Fort  Toulouse,  planted  by  Bienville,  they 
succeeded  in  converting  to  their  cause  but  few  of  the 
Upper  Creeks. 

It  was  in  May,  1736,  that  Bienville  determined  to 
destroy  the  last  vestige  of  the  Natchez  tribe,  who  had 
fled  from  French  arms  upon  the  Mississippi,  and  who 
were  now  hospitably  entertained  by  the  Chickasaws  in 
the  hills  of  North  Mississippi  and  North  Alabama. 
These  Natchez  refugees  bore  a  deadly  hatred  to  the 
French  for  the  destruction  of  their  tribe,  and  lost  no 
occasion  to  instil  animosity  against  their  conquerors  in 
the  breasts  of  the  brave  mountaineers.  The  BngUsh 
.fanned  the  flame,  until  the  French  were  goaded  by 
constant  attacks  upon  their  settlements  to  launch  an 
expedition  against  the  Natchez  viUage,  which  had  been 
established  in  the  heart  of  the  Chickasaw  nation. 

It  was  planned  that  D'Artaquette  should  lead  a  force 
of  French,  with  their  alhes  of  the  Ixibes  of  the  Miamis 
and  the  Illinois,  from  a  point  upon  the  Mississippi,  and 
should  march  eastward  toward  the  heart  of  the  Chicka- 
saw tribe,  while  Bienville  should  move  up  the  Tombigbee 
from  Mobfle  and  march  westward  to  the  same  point. 
The  two  forces  were  to  unite  and  extinguish  the  Natchez 
survivors,  and  destroy  EngHsh  influence  with  the  moun- 
tain tribes. 

D'Artaquette  reached  the  point  of  contemplated 
junction  of  forces,  but  could  hear  nothing  of  BienviUe. 
He  determined  to  make  the  attack  alone  and  reap  all 
the  glory.  His  force  consisted  of  one  hundred  and 
thirty  Frenchmen  and  three  hundred  and  sixty  Indians. 
He  charged  the  Natchez  town  and  found  himself  con- 
fronted by  a  body  of  thirty  Englishmen  and  five  htm- 


38       THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

dred  Chickasaws.  The  Miamis  and  Illinois  fled  at 
once  and  the  French  were  shot  down  by  scores.  Most 
of  the  officers  were  slain,  and  D'Artaquette  himself 
fell  into  the  hands  of  the  enemy  and  was  subsequently 
burned  to  death  But  a  small  remnant  of  the  expedi- 
tion escaped.  The  French  guns  and  ammunition  cap- 
tured on  the  field  were  afterwards  turned  against 
Bienville. 

With  an  army  of  five  hundred  and  fifty  French  and 
six  hundred  Choctaw  allies,  Bienville  embarked  at 
Mobile,  and  ascended  the  Tombigbee  to  the  head  of 
navigation,  now  known  as  Cotton-Gin  Port.  Not 
hearing  from  D'Artaquette,  he  marched  westward 
twenty-seven  miles  and  encountered  the  first  Chickasaw 
village.  To  his  astonishment  he  found  it  well  fortified 
by  stockades,  with  loop-holes  for  musketry,  and  with 
the  English  flag  flying  over  the  fort.  Bienvifle 
attacked  the  village  and  was  most  disgracefully  driven 
back.  His  Choctaw  allies  gave  him  no  assistance  in 
the  battle.  He  left  his  dead  and  wounded  on  the  field 
of  Pontotoc,  and  hastily  reached  the  river  and 
descended  to  Mobile.  This  disastrous  expedition  term- 
inated the  official  career  of  BienviUe. 

In  1752,  war  broke  out  between  England  and 
France.  The  Chickasaws  remained  true  to  the  English, 
and  Bienvifle's  successor,  the  Marquis  De  Vaudreuil, 
determined  to  chastise  them.  He  pursued  the  route 
followed  by  Bienville,  landed  with  his  army  at  Cott^on- 
Gin  Port,  marched  westward  against  the  Chickasaw 
villages,  and  was  beaten  as  disastrously  as  his  prede- 
cessor had  been.  He  returned  to  Mobile  with  no 
laurels 

At  the  conclusion  of  the  French  and  Indian  war,  by 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.       39 

treaty  of  February  18,  1763,  France  ceded  to  Great 
Britain  all  of  her  Canadian  possessions,  and  all  of  Louis- 
iana lying  on  the  eastern  side  of  the  Mississippi,  as  far 
south  as  Bayou  Iberville.  She  ceded  also  the  port  and 
river  of  Mobile.  Spain,  the  ally  of  France,  ceded  to 
Great  Britain  her  province  of  Florida.  The  northern 
boundary  ol  West  Florida  was  declared  to  be  the  line 
32  degrees,  28  minutes,  which,  cammencing  at  the 
mouth  of  the  Yazoo  river,  extended  through  points 
near  the  towns  of  Demopolis  on  the  Tombigbee,  and  of 
Columbus  on  the  Chattahoochee.  Alabama,  south  of 
that  line,  was  in  British  West  Florida  ;  and  Alabama, 
north  of  that  line,  was  in  British  Illinois.  As  soon  as 
the  fertile  lands  of  Alabama  and  Mississippi  passed 
into  English  hands,  and  a  British  Governor  was  sta- 
tioned at  Mobile,  Anglo-American  Qolonies  sprang  up 
in  every  direction.  A  colony  of  North  Carolinians 
settled  between  Manchac  and  Baton  Rouge.  Virgin- 
ians came  down  the  Ohio  and  the  Tennessee.  Many 
immigrants  cam<^  in  from  England,  Ireland,  Scotland 
and  the  British  West  Indies.  All  along  the  Missis- 
sippi, and  covering;  a  belt  of  fifteen  miles^  settled 
adventurers  from  New  Jersey,  Delaware,  and  Virginia, 
and  colonies  of  Scots  and  of  Germans,  many  of  whom 
assumed  French  names.  The  British  government  in- 
dustriously supplied  these  settlers  with  African  slaves. 

In  June,  1773,  the  Creeks  and  Cherokees  met  the 
English  at  Augusta  and  ceded  to  them  all  the  territory 
upon  the  head  waters  of  the  Ogeechee  and  northwest  of 
Little  river. 

Lachlan  McGillivray,  a  young  Scotch  trader,  had 
married  an  Indian  girl,  the  daughter  of  Marchand,  by 
an  Indian  woman  of  the  tribe  of  the  Wind.     Marchand 


40       THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

had  been  commander  of  Fort  Toulouse.  The  son  of 
Lachlan  by  the  Indian  princess,  Alexander  McGillivray, 
became  a  powerful  man  among  the  Creeks.  He  was 
carefully  educated  at  Charleston,  and  at  the  age  of  30 
was  elected  Chief  of  the  Creek  Nation.  This  was  just 
at  the  outbreak  of  the  American  Revolution.  The 
British  commissioned  him  a  colonel,  and  thus  early 
secured  his  favor.  He  was  active  in  confederating  the 
Indians  against  the  Whigs,  and  led  many  expeditions 
of  Tory  Refugees  and  Indians  against  the  white  settle- 
ments of  the  Gulf. 

As  soon  as  Spain  was  embroiled  in  the  war  with 
Great  Britain,  she  resolved  to  re-take  Florida,  and 
restore  the  Spanish  flag  over  the  country  which  De- 
Soto  had  discovered.  Don  Galvez  attacked  and 
reduced  Fort  Bute  at  Manchac  and  carried  his  arms  to 
Baton  Rouge.  The  forts  along  the  river  were  surren- 
dered by  the  British.  Thence  Don  Galvez  sailed  for 
Mobile,  reduced  Fort  Charlotte,  and  received  the  sur- 
render of  the  city  with  all  the  territory  from  the  Per- 
dido  to  Pearl  river.  With  the  exception  of  Pensacola, 
the  Spaniards  w^re  now  in  possession  of  the  British 
Province  of  West  Florida.  On  May  9,  1781,  Pensa- 
cola was  also  conquered  by  the  everywhere  victorious 
Galvez. 

By  the  treaty  of  Paris,  Great  Britain  stipulated  as 
the  southern  boundary  of  the  American  colonies  now 
free,  the  line  of  thirty-one  degrees,  beginning  at  the 
Mississippi,  extending  due  east  to  the  Chattahoochee, 
down  that  river  to  the  mouth  of  the  Flint,  thence  to 
the  St.  Mary's,  and  along  that  river  to  the  sea.  Great 
Britain  ceded  East  Florida  and  confirmed  West  Florida, 
to  Spain. 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.       41 

The  territory  between  thirty-one  degrees  and  thirty- 
two  degrees  twenty-eight  minutes,  although  not  ceded 
to  Spain  by  Great  Britain,  was  claimed  by  that  power 
in  virtue  of  the  line  adopted,  under  conquest  by  Galvez, 
as  the  northern  boundary  of  West  Florida. 

The  colony  of  Oglethorpe  continued  to  enlarge  its 
proportions.  In  1783,  commissioners  from  the  Georgia 
Legislature,  by  treaty  at  Augusta,  acquired  from  the 
Cherokees  the  country  west  of  the  Tugaloo,  including 
the  head-waters  of  the  Oconee.  A  small  delegation  of 
Creeks  agreed  to  this  treaty,  but  a  larger  portion  of 
the  nation  repudiated  it. 

After  the  acquisition  of  East  and  West  Florida  by 
Spain,  the  Indian  chief  McGillivray,  who  represented 
the  Creeks  and  Seminoles,  allied  himself  with  Spain 
and  agreed  that  there  should  be  concert  of  action  in 
the  interest  of  Spain  between  the  Creeks,  Chickasaws, 
Choctaws  and  Cherokees.  As  soon  as  Georgia  at- 
tempted to  occupy  the  lands  ceded  under  the  Augusta 
treaty,  a  border  war  commenced.  The  Provisional 
Congress  appointed  Commissioners  to  treat  with  Mc- 
Gillivray, but  only  a  few  of  the  chiefs  attended  at  the 
appointed  place.  Georgia  protested  against  the  inter- 
ference of  the  Provisional  Congress,  and  so  soon  as  the 
Federal  Commissioners  took  their  departure,  she  treated 
with  the  few  assembled  Creek  chiefs  for  a  cession  of  all 
the  territory  lying  on  the  east  side  of  a  Hne  to  run  from 
the  junction  of  the  Oconee  and  Ocmulgee  to  the  St. 
Marys  river,  including  all  the  islands  and  harbors.  In 
thus  repudiating  the  Congressional  Commission,  the 
State  of  Georgia,  at  the  earliest  day,  while  the  articles  of 
Confederation  were  the  league  between  the  States, 
denied  the  right  of  Congress  to  make  treaties  with  the 


42       THE  CKADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

Indian  nations  who  resided  within  what  she  claimed  to 
be  her  territory.  The  articles  of  Confederation  gave 
Congress  the  power  to  make  treaties  witli  and  to 
manage  affairs  with  Indians  not  dwelling  within  the 
boundaries  of  a  State.  When  the  Federal  Constitution 
was  adopted,  in  1 T87,  the  year  following  the  Augusta 
treaty  its  language  gave  Congress  the  power  to  regu- 
late commerce  with  the  Indian  tribes ;  but  in  ratifying 
that  instrument  Georgia  never  for  a  moment  suspected 
that  the  absence  from  the  Constitution  of  the  qualify- 
ing phrase  contained  in  the  articles  of  Confederacy 
was  intended  to  give  the  new  Federal  Congress 
authority  to  make  treaties  and  regulate  commerce  with 
Indians  resident  in  a  St^te.  The  Georgia  Legislature, 
in  1786,  declared  by  resolution  that  the  attempt  of 
Congress  to  treat  with  the  Creeks  was  subversive  of 
the  rights  of  the  State.  It  also  instructed  its  members 
of  Congress  to  insist  on  a  revocation  of  the  powers  of 
the  Federal  Commission. 

The  Upper  Creeks,  who  had  never  occupied  the  Oco- 
nee lands,  waged  incessant  skirmish  against  the  Geor- 
gians who  dared  to  settle  upon  the  disputed  territory. 
McGillivray  was  active  in  every  direction  He  sent  a 
detachment  of  Creeks  to  the  rescue  of  the  Cherokees, 
who  were  being  pushed  back  by  the  North  Carolinians, 
and  after  collecting  the  demoralized  warriors,  attacked 
a  body  of  the  I<>ankhn  troops  and  completely  routed 
them.     But  three  of  the  Americans  escaped. 

At  last  McGilHvray,  in  hope  of  being  i  estored  to  the 
fortune  of  $100,000,  which  his  Scotch  father  forfeited 
to  the  Whigs  when  he  joined  the  Tories,  and  finally 
fled  back  to  Scotland,  agreed  to  meet  Federal  Commis- 
sioners for  an  adjustment  of  disputes.     At  the  head  of 


THE  ORABLE  OP  THE  CONFEDERACY.       43 

two  thousand  warriors  he  attended  the  Commission,  at 
Rock  Landing,  on  the  Oconee,  but  finding  that  the 
basis  of  treaty  did  not  contemplate  a  return  to  the 
Creeks  of  the  Oconee  lands,  he  abruptly  terminated 
the  conference. 

General  Washington,  now  President,  was  at  first 
inclined  to  declare  war  against  McGilHvray  and  defend 
the  Oconee  settlements,  but  finally  concluded  to  at- 
tempt further  peaceable  measures.  He  despatched  TJol. 
Marinus  Willett,  a  native  of  Long  Island,  and  distin- 
guished as  an  officer  in  the  Canadian  war  and  in  the 
Revolution,  to  meet  McGillivray  and  to  invite  him  and 
his  chiefs  to  a  conference  at  the  seat  of  Government. 
The  chiefs  accepted  the  invitation  and  visited  New 
York.  When  they  reached  that  city,  they  were 
received  by  the  Tammany  Society,  in  the  full  dress  of 
their  order,  and  conducted  to  the  presence  of  the  Pres- 
ident and  Congress.  A  treaty  was  concluded  whereby 
it  was  agreed  that  the  (Greeks  and  Seihinoles  should  be 
under  the  protection  of  the  United  States,  and  that 
they  should  make  no  treaties  with  any  State,  and  that 
the  Oconee  lands  should  remain  with  Georgia.  By 
private  understanding,  McGillivray  was  to  be  made 
agent  of  the  United  States,  with  the  rank  and  pay  of 
Brigadier  General,  and  the  various  chiefs  were  to  be 
paid  annually  $100  each,  and  to  be  furnished  gold 
medals.  Such  was  the  inauguration  of  that  pernicious 
system  of  bribery  which  ever  since  that  day  has 
kept  the  Indian  standing  in  presence  of  the  Govern- 
ment with  a  bloody  scalp  extended  in  one  hand  and 
the  other  hand  stretched  out  for  his  annual  subsidy  of 
gold. 

Upon  his  return  to  the  Coosa,  McGillivray  found  a 


44       THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

large  portion  of  his  people  hostile  to  his  New  York 
treaty,  and  he  therefore  delayed  carrying  out  its  pro- 
visions. At  the  first  convenient  time,  he  visited 
Mobile,  New  Orleans  and  Pensacola,  and  entered  into 
a  new  alliance  with  the  Spaniards.  He  was  made 
Spanish  agent  over  the  Creeks  at  a  salary  of  $3,500 
per  annum.  Professing  to  be  desirous  of  carrying  out 
the  New  York  treaty,  he  remained  silent  and  apathetic 
while  the  Spanish  officers  incited  the  Indians  to  re- 
newed hostilities  upon  the  Cumberland  and  the  Oconee. 
The  Spanish  Government  forbid  free  navigation  to  the 
mouth  of  the  Mississippi,  claimed  thirty-two  degrees 
twenty-eight  minutes  as  the  North  boundary  of  West 
Florida,  remonstrated  against  the  running  of  the  line 
around  the  Oconee  lands,  claimed  surveillance  over  the 
affairs  of  the  Creeks,  and  declared  that  she  would  pro- 
tect them  against  the  pretensions  of  Georgia. 

On  February  17,  1793,  McGillivray  died  at  Pen- 
sacola. He  had  been  a  Colonel  in  the  British  service, 
and  at  one  and  the  same  time  Brigadier  General  in  the 
Spanish  and  United  States  service. 

After  McGillivray's  death  hostilities  between  the 
Creeks  and  Georgians  increased,  until  Governor  Edward 
Teltair,  of  Georgia,  determined  to  raise  a  large  force 
and  invade  the  Creek  nation.  President  Washington 
remonstrated  with  Telfair  and  claimed  that  Congress 
alone  had  the  right  to  prosecute  such  a  war.  But  the 
Georgian  denied  the  claim  of  Congress  and  continued 
his  military  preparations.  So  intense  was  the  feeling 
against  the  pretensions  of  the  President,  that  Wash- 
ington, notwithst;anding  his  eminent  services  to  his 
country,  wa^  regarded  with  deep  animosity  by  the 
people  of  Georgia  of  that  day. 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.       45 

It  was  in  June,  1796,  that  the  Federal  Government 
concluded  a  treaty  with  the  chiefs  of  the  whole  Creek 
nation,  ratifying  that  made  by  McGillivray  at  New 
York.  The  Creeks  admitted  a  new  entering  wedge 
into  their  territory  by  giving  the  Federal  Government 
the  right  to  establish  posts  between  the  Oconee  and 
the  Ocmulgee,  although  denying  such  permission  to  be 
a  cession  of  lands. 

Thomas  Pinckney,  United  States  Minister  at  Madrid, 
in  October,  1795,  concluded  a  treated  with  Spain,  in 
which  the  line  of  thirty-one  degrees  was  defined  as  the 
northwest  boundary  of  West  Florida.  Thus  another 
large  domain  lyins;  between  thirty-one  degrees  and 
thirty-two  degrees,  twenty-eight  minutes,  and  stretching 
from  the  Mississippi  to  the  Chattahoochee,  became  the 
acknowledged  property  of  Georgia. 

In  1798,  Congress,  by  the  consent  of  the  State  of 
Georgia,  organized  the  territory  of  Mississippi,  com- 
prising the  country  bounded  between  thirty-one  de- 
gi-ees  and  thirty-two  degrees  twenty- eight  minutes,  and 
between  the  Mississippi  and  Chattahoochee  rivers. 
This  organization  by  Congress,  it  was  stipulated,  was 
not  to  impair  the  rights  of  Georgia  in  the  soil.  Presi- 
dent Adams  appointed  Winthrop  Sergeant,  Governor ; 
John  Steele,  Secretary ;  and  John  Tilton,  of  New 
Hampshire,  and  Thomas  Rodney,  of  Delaware,  Judges. 

The  Natchez  District  was  formed  into  two  counties, 
Adams  and  Pickering.  The  population  of  this  district 
numbered  six  thousand  They  cultivated  the  banks 
of  the  Mississippi,  and  the  bayous  and  larger  streams 
flowing  into  that  river.  The  Chickasaw  and  others  of 
the  bravest  Indian  tribes  dwelt  upon  the  north,  east, 


46       THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

and  west  of  these  settlements,  and  the  Spanish  Govern- 
ment held  the  country  to  the  south. 

The  Alabama  District  was  organized  into  one 
county,  Washington,  which  covered  an  area  from 
which  twenty  counties  in  Alabama  and  twelve  in  Mis- 
sissippi have  been  since  constructed.  The  population 
of  the  entire  territory,  excluding  Indians,  was  at  that 
time  about  ten  thousand. 

In  1802,  the  Federal  Government  acquired  from* 
Georgia  all  of  her  rights  in  territory  west  of  the  Chat- 
tahoochee. It  was  agreed  that  Georgia  should  be  paid 
the  sum  of  one  million  two  hundred  and  fifty  thousand 
dollars,  and  the  Federal  Government  stipulated  that 
the  Indians  should  be  removed  as  soon  as  possible 
from  the  territory  of  Georgia.  The  purchase  money 
which  was  to  be  paid  could  not  be  considered  a 
ruling  motive  for  this  cession  on  the  part  of  Georgia, 
since  it  was  to  be  paid  from  proceeds  of  the  sale  of 
lands  within  the  ceded  territory.  The  true  motive  by 
which  Georgia  was  actuated  was  the  pledge  by  the  Fed- 
eral Government  to  remove  the  Indians  from  her 
limits. 

So  soon  as  land  offices  were  estabHshed  by  the  Gov- 
ernment and  the  boundaries  of  old  French,  Spanish 
and  English  grants  had  been  fixed  and  recognized  by 
law,  the  territory  of  Mississippi  received  a  large  and 
constantly  increasing  population.  It  came  from  all 
sections  of  the  United  States,  but  chiefly  from  Georgia, 
the  Carolinas  and  from  Virginia. 

In  1801,  Napoleon  compelled  Spain  to  cede  the 
province  of  Louisiana  to  France;  but  burdened  by 
European  possessions  and  not  being  able  to  protect  and 
defend  so  distant  and  at  that  time  unprofitable  colony, 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.       47 

he  readily  consented,  in  consideration  of  fifteen  millions 
of  dollars,  very  greatly  needed  by  his  camp  chest,  to 
cede  Louisiana  to  the  United  States.  This  cession 
took  place  April  30,  1808,  and  at  once  large  numbers 
of  settlers  flocked  into  the  territory  of  Louisiana  fi'om 
the  States,  and  planted  settlements  from  the  Kansas 
river  to  the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi.  On  Dec.  20, 
1803,  General  Wilkinson  and  the  troops  of  the  United 
Steites  took  possession  of  New  Orleans. 

The  people  of  the  territories  of  Louisiana  and  Mis- 
sissippi, impatient  of  the  Spanish  garrison  and  com- 
mercial restrictions  at  Mobile,  and  anxious  to  occupy 
the  lands  about  Bayou  Sara,  Baton  Rouge  and  Man- 
chac,  on  the  east  bank  of  the  Mississippi,  and  the  lands 
on  the  Tombigbee  and  Alabama,  south  of  thirty-one 
degrees,  and  as  far  as  the  gulf,  both  of  which  regions 
fell  within  the  latest  Spanish  definition  of  West  Florida, 
contended  that  the  cession  of  Louisiana  by  Spain  to 
France,  in  1801,  was  a  cession  of  that  Louisiana  of 
which  Bienville  had  been  the  founder  and  which  Fi-ance 
possessed  before  1792,  and  that  when  Napoleon,  in 
J  802,  ceded  to  the  United  States  all  the  territory 
acquired  by  France  from  Spain,  he  ceded  not  only  the 
region  then  known  as  Louisiana,  but  also  that  other  re- 
gion extending  from  the  Perdido  to  Bayou  Iberville,  em- 
bracing Mobile,  which  was  once  a  part  of  Louisiana, 
but  which  afterwards  became  known  as  a  part  of 
Florida.     The  United  Suites  supported  this  claim. 

Some  border  troubles  occurred  between  the  Ameri- 
cans and  the  Spaniards.  So  intense  was  the  popular 
feeling  against  the  Spanish  pretension  and  continued 
occupation  of  Baton  Rouge  and  Mobile,  that  John 
Randolph,  of  the  Committee  on  Foreign  Relations,  re- 


48       THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

ported  a  bill  in  CoDgress  to  raise  an  army  to  repel  the 
Spaniards.  President  Jefferson,  however,  exerted  his 
influence,  effectually,  to  defeat  such  a  warlike  measure. 

The  animosity  against  the  Spanish  occupancy  con- 
tinued to  grow  for  several  years,  during  which  the  pop- 
ulation of  Louisiana  and  Mississippi  multiplied  in  every 
direction,  until  at  last,  in  August,  1810,  a  band  of 
Americans,  styHng  themselves  patriots,  and  under  the 
lead  of  the  Kempers,  who  had  suffered  cruelty  at  the 
hands  of  the  Spaniards,  organized  at  St.  Francisville, 
made  a  dash  upon  Baton  Rouge  and  took  that  place  by 
surprise,  killing  Governor  Grandpre  in  the  assault. 
The  other  posts  were  captured  in  succession,  and  the 
Spanish  forces  departed  for  Pensacola. 

The  territory  thus  captured  was  bounded  by  thirty- 
one  degrees  on  the  north,  Bayou  Iberville  on  the 
south,  the  Mississippi  on  the  west  and  Pearl  river  on 
the  east.  It  embraced  the  present  parishes  of  West  and 
East  Fehciana,  East  Baton  Rouge,  St.  Helena,  Living- 
ston, Washington  and  St.  Tammany,  in  Louisiana,  a 
territory  comprising  nearly  eight  thousand  square  miles, 
and  equal  in  extent  to  the  State  of  Massachusetts. 

A  Declaration  of  Independence  was  published  by 
the  patriots  in  convention,  and  steps  were  taken  to  es- 
tablish a  government  independent  of  the  Union.  The 
adventure  of  Aaron  Burr,  a  few  years  previous,  had 
inspired  a  wide-spread  ambition  to  organize  new  gov- 
ernments after  the  model  of  the  United  States,  from 
either  unoccupied  territory  of  the  United  States  or 
from  neighboring  territory. 

The  new  republic  commissioned  Reuben  Kemper  to 
organize  a  force  upon  the  Tombigbee  to  expel  the 
Spaniards  from  Mobile  and  all  the  territory  between 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.       49 

Pearl  and  Perdido  rivers.  A  considerable  body  of  men 
was  soon  organized  and  moved  df/wn  the  river.  Halt- 
ing one  mile  above  Blakely,  they  sent  a  note  to  Gov- 
ernor Folch,  demanding  the  surrender  of  Mobile. 
While  awaiting  an  answer  the  expedition  threw  off  all 
military  restraint  and  precaution,  and  were  surprised 
by  a  Spanish  force.  A  number  were  killed  and  the 
rest  took  to  flight.  A  few  captives  were  confined  five 
years  in  Moro  Castle.  The  United  States  frowned 
upon  these  proceedings  of  the  Kempers,  and  sent  a 
force  to  Mobile  for  the  protection  of  the  Spaniards. 
Had  this  adventure  succeeded,  and  the  countiy  between 
the  Pearl  and  Perdido  been  added  to  the  already  fi:ee 
republic  of  Iberville,  the  dominion  of  that  Government 
would  have  been  so  extensive  and  favorably  situated 
as  to  become  at  once  self-supporting  and  prosperous. 

But  the  failure  of  the  expedition  against  Mobile  re- 
sulted at  once  in  a  relinquishment  of  all  plans  for  an 
independent  republic  upon  Lake  Pontchartrain,  and  in 
the  annexation  of  that  region  to  Louisiana. 

Spain  continued  to  hold  the  country  south  of  thirty- 
one  degrees,  and  to  shut  the  Americans  fi^om  the  gulf, 
but  the  United  States  made  valuable  acquisitions  of 
territory  in  other  directions.  In  1805  nothing  but  an 
Indian  trail  led  from  the  Oconee  to  the  Alabama  river, 
at  Lake  Tensaw.  To  open  a  better  avenue  to  the  set- 
tlements on  the  Tombigbee,  the  Federal  Government 
obtained  from  the  Creeks  the  right  to  open  a  horse- 
path through  their  country.  The  chiefs  agreed  to 
establish  bridges  and  houses  of  accommodation.  In 
the  same  year  the  Cherokees  granted  the  right  for  a 
mail  route  from  Knoxville  to  New  Orleans  by  way  of 
the  Tombigbee,  and  also  a  cession  of  three  hundred 


50       THE  CEADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

and  fifty  thousand  acres  of  land,  lying  in  the  bend  of 
the  Tennessee  river,  and  embracing  the  present  county 
of  Madison.  In  that  year,  also,  the  Choctaws  ceded 
five  millions  of  acres  between  the  Alabama  and  Tom- 
bigbee  rivers,  and  stretching  from  the  Tombigbee  to  the 
Natchez  settlements.  It  was  thus  that  the  fairest  of 
his  lands  were  being  acquired  from  the  Indian,  and  high- 
ways constructed  through  the  remainder,  which  tended 
surely  to  further  conquest  or  removal. 

When  war  broke  out  between  England  and  the 
United  States,  in  1812,  the  continued  occupancy  of 
the  gulf  coast  by  the  Spaniard  was  considered  danger- 
ous to  our  Government,  as  Spain  was  believed  to  be  in 
secret  league  with  England.  Under  orders,  General 
Wilkinson,  with  six  hundred  men,  sailed  from  New 
Orleans,  in  April,  1813,  and  on  the  13th  took  position 
in  the  rear  of  Fort  Charlotte.  Captain  Perez,  the 
commandant,  surrendered  the  fort,  and  the  Spanish 
garrison  retired  to  Pensacola.  At  last  the  whole  terri- 
tory of  what  is  now  Louisiana,  Mississippi  and  Ala- 
bama was  free  from  foreign  dominion,  and  nothing 
was  left  to  prevent  its  entire  occupancy  by  Americans 
except  the  continued  residence  of  warHke  tribes  of  In- 
dians, whom  the  Federal  Government,  as  long  ago  as 
1802,  had  stipulated  with  Georgia  to  remove. 

Notwithstanding  the  non-observance  of  this  stipula- 
tion, the  country  was  rapidly  settled  by  a  brave  and 
enterprising  people.  In  1810  the  population  of  Lou- 
isiana was  76,556 ;  that  of  Georgia  was  252,438,  and 
that  of  the  Mississippi  territory  was  40,352.  The 
total  population  of  this  new  region  thus  embraced  more 
than  369,000  souls.  Ten  years  later,  in  1820,  just  as 
the  Indian  agitation,  the  slavery  agitation  and  the  fi:ee- 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.       51 

trade  agitation  had  begun  to  divide  the  people  of  the 
United  States  into  well  defined  political  parties,  we  find 
that  the  population  of  these  gulf  States  was  as  follows: 
Georgia/ 340,975  ;  Mississippi,  75,448;  Alabama, 
127,901;  and  Louisiana,  152,923.  They  had  grown 
in  ten  years  from  a  population  of  369,000  to  one  of 
697,000,  notwithstanding  the  fierce  Indian  war  which 
had  occurred  in  the  meantime. 

This  population  represented  a  voting  power  two- 
thirds  as  great  as  that  of  Virginia,  more  than  half  as 
great  as  that  of  New  York,  much  greater  than  that  of 
Massachusetts,  and  more  than  one-third  as  great  as  that 
of  all  New  England.  If  in  the  short  period  of  one 
generation  this  new  power  in  the  southwest  was  able  to 
command  a  political  position  so  imposing,  would  not  her 
continued  growth  in  a  few  years  restore  to  the  South 
and  to  the  agricultural  States  that  preponderance  in 
the  government  which  had  already  shifted  from  Vir- 
ginia to  Massachusetts  ? 

The  unjust  political  plans  devised  to  curb  this  grow- 
ing empire  were  the  causes  which  led  to  the  establish- 
ment at  Montgomery,  in  1831,  of  the  Southern  Con- 
federacy. 


CHi?Ll*TER   III, 


Growth  of  the  Idea  of  Secession — Jealoitsy  of  the  Commer- 
cial against  the  Agricultural  States — Navigation  of  the 
Mississippi — The  Whiskey  Rebellion — The  Jay  Treaty 
—  Vietcs  of  Distinguished  Men^Frequent  Threats 
and  Hopes  of  Disunion — The  Louisiana  Purchase — 
The  East  Fears  the  South  and  West — The  Hartford 
Convention — The  Resolutions  of  ''98 — Randolphs  Re- 
ply to  Patrick  Henry,  etc.,  etc. 


"  An  effort  has  often  since  been  made  to  represent  it  as  one  of  many 
malicious  and  entirely  ungrounded  calumnies,  tliat  there  was  at  this 
time  any  serious  thought  of  a  disruption  of  the  Union.  This  is  only  one 
instance  of  the  white-washing  tendencies  and  decorative  coloring  char- 
acteristic of  the  greater  number  of  historical  works.  In  the  letters  of 
the  Federalists  we  find  not  only  that  wishes  to  this  end  were  expressed, 
but  that  formal  plans  were  devised." 

VoN  HoiiST's  Constitutional  History  of  the  United  States. 


"The  Federal  Government,  then,  appears  to  be  the  organ  through 
which  the  United  Republics  communicate  with  foreign  nations  and  with 
each  other.  Their  submission  to  its  operation  is  voluntary ;  its  councils, 
its  engagements,  its  authority,  are  theirs,  modified  and  united.  Its  sov- 
ereignty is  an  emanation  from  theirs,  not  a  flame  in  which  they  have 
been  swallowed  up.  Each  is  still  a  perfect  State,  still  sovereign,  still  in- 
dependent, and  still  capable,  should  the  occasion  require,  to  resume  the 
exercise  of  its  functions  in  the  most  unlimited  extent." 

Tucker's  Blackstone  [1803,1 


The  growth  of  the  southwest  was  looked  upon  with 
disfavor  by  the  political  leaders  of  the  Northern  States 
from  the  very  hour  when  the  Constitution  recently 
adopted  began  to  show  signs  of  vitaUty ;  and  this  dis- 
favor was  intensified  by  the  acquisition  of  Louisiana. 
Washington  himself,  even  as  late  as  1784,  did  not 
regard  the  possession  of  the  Mississippi  river  as  a  mat- 
ter essential  to  the  confederation,  and  was  accustomed, 
like  the  entire  body  of  the  Congress,  to  limit  his  atten- 


54       THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

tion  to  the  thirteen  colonies.  The  outlying  lands  were 
regarded  simply  as  a  convenience  for  payment  of  the 
public  debt.  Few  if  any  of  the  statesmen  of  that  day 
contemplated  the  possibility  of  the  expansion  of  this 
outlying  territory  into  populous  States,  whose  votes  in 
the  Federal  Congress  might  soon  decide  the  balance  of 
power  against  the  North. 

The  first  issue  between  the  South  and  North  was 
distinctly  and  positively  made  when  Spain,  in  1785, 
refused  to  yield  the  free  navigation  of  the  Mississippi, 
but  at  the  same  time  offered  a  treaty,  which  otherwise 
would  have  been  favorable  to  the  commercial  interests 
of  the  Middle  and  Northern  States.  The  Secretary  of 
Foreign  Affairs,  Mr.  Jay,  recommended  a  waiver  for 
thirty  years,  of  all  claim  to  the  fi:ee  navigation  of  the 
Mississippi.  The  seven  Northern  States  voted  for  this 
stipulation,  and  the  five  Southern  States,  with  the  ex- 
ception of  one  member,  voted  against  it.  Delaware 
was  not  then  represented.  Thus  early  were  geograph- 
ical lines  drawn  upon  a  question  in  which  the  South 
exhibited  a  comprehensive  statesmanship,  and  in  which 
the  North  exhibited  an  unpatriotic  jealousy  at  the  ex- 
pansion of  the  confederation.  Jefferson,  writing  from 
Paris,  to  Madison,  in  1787,  says:  "  I  have  had  great 
"  opportunities  of  knowing  the  character  of  the  people 
"  who  inhabit  that  country,  and  I  venture  to  say  that 
"  the  act  which  abandons  the  navigation  of  the  Missis- 
"  sippi  is  an  act  of  separation  between  the  eastern  and 
"  western  country.  It  is  a  relinquishment  of  five  parts 
"  out  of  eight  of  the  territory  of  the  United  States — 
"  an  abandonment  of  the  fairest  subject  for  the  pay- 
"  ment  of  our  public  debts,  and  the  chaining  of  those 
<^  debts  upon  our  own  necks,  in  perpetuation.    I  have 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.       55 

"the  utmost  confidence  in  the  honest  intentions  of 
"  those  who  concur  in  this  measure,  but  I  lament  their 
"  want  of  acquaintance  with  the  character  and  physical 
"advantages  of  the  people  who,  right  or  wrong,  will 
"  suppose  their  interests  sacrificed  on  this  occasion  to 
"  the  contrary  interests  of  that  part  of  the  confederacy 
"  in  possession  of  present  power." 

Unquestionably  on  this  occasion  the  interests  of  all 
the  settlements  upon  the  waters  of  the  Mississippi  were 
sacrificed  to  the  jealousy  of  that  part  of  the  confed- 
eracy which  was  then  in  power.  In  the  language  of 
John  Adams,  this  unpatriotic  attempt  at  waiver  for 
thirty  years,  of  all  claim  to  the  free  navigation  of  the 
Mississippi,  "  gave  rise  to  rankling  jealousies  and  fester- 
"  ing  prejudices,  not  only  of  the  North  and  the  South 
"  against  each  other,  but  of  each  section  against  the 
"  ablest  and  most  virtuous  of  the  other." 

The  jealousy  which  thus  began,  under  the  confedera- 
tion continued  after  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution. 
The  smaller  qommercial  States,  at  the  outset,  while 
John  Adams  was  President,  for  the  most  part  repu- 
diated the  right  of  secession,  and  denounced  the  reso- 
lutions of  the  Kentucky  and  Virginia  Legislatures, 
which  set  up  the  doctrine  that  in  the  last  resort,  the 
State  was  the  sole  umpire  as  to  all  Federal  questions ; 
but  so  soon  as  it  appeared  that  the  Federalists  would 
lose  control  of  the  government,  they  hastened  to  ad- 
vocate and  threatened  disunion  upon  every  question 
which  tended  to  diminish  their  already  waning  power. 
There  was  not  at  that  day  a  horror  of  disunion,  and 
no  man  ,was  stigmatized  as  traitor  who  threatened  it. 
The  States  had  made  the  Union,  just  as  they  had  made 
the  confederation,  and  it  was  difficult  to  understand 


66       THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

how  the  one  compact  was  more  sacred  in  its  origin  or 
its  objects  than  the  other.  The  confederation  had  sig- 
nally failed  of  its  purpose,  and  the  Union  might  be 
equally  as  defective. 

As  an  illustration  of  the  temper  of  the  times  it  is 
interesting  to  note  that  the  suppression  of  the  whiskey 
insurrection,  during  Washington's  administration,  gave 
rise  to  prophecies  of  civil  war,  and  of  the  overthrow  of 
the  administration.  It  was  said  that  the  insurgent 
district  of  Pennsylvania  would  secede  from  Jhe  Union, 
and  that  the  coercive  action  of  the  Government  would 
justify  such  secession.  Jefferson  feared  that  the 
excise  law  would  produce  disunion.  Wolcott  expressed 
a  hope  that  the  insurgent  district  would  be  either  chas- 
tised or  rejected  from  the  Union.  Hamilton  was 
chagrined  to  find  that  the  march  of  the  militia  to 
enforce  the  excise  law  was  greeted  by  the  people  with 
laughter  and  derision.  Edmund  Randolph  expressed  a 
fear  that  the  insurgents  would  call  England  to  their  aid 
and  thus  bring  about  disruption  of  the  Union. 

Another  illustration  of  the  indifference  with  which 
the  Union  was  regarded  by  the  States  whenever  Federal 
laws  interfered  with  their  peculiar  interests,  may  be 
found  in  the  denunciation  of  the  treaty  negotiated  with 
Great  Britain,  by  Jay,  in  ]794.  The  friends  of  the 
French  Revolution  in  the  House  of  Representatives,  in 
retaliation  against  the  British  Orders  in  Council  of  1793, 
which  forbade  the  commerce  of  foreign  nations  with 
France,  had  adopted  a  resolution  in  Congress  forbid- 
ding the  purchase  of  British  manufactured  goods  until 
the  western  posts  were  surrendered  and  reparation  had 
been  made  for  a  violation  of  the  neutral  rights  of  the 
United  States.    Fortunately  better  councils  prevailed ; 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.       57 

but,  pending  the  question  of  this  embargo,  there  was 
the  most  intense  excitement  among  the  people.  The 
material  interests  of  the  Federalists  and  a  tear  of  her 
power  bound  them  to  England.  Sympathy  with  the 
Republican  purposes  of  the  French  bound  the  anti- 
Federalists  or  Republicans  to  France.  New  England 
was  for  peace  with  Great  Britain  and  acceptance  of 
Jay's  treaty.  The  Middle  States  and  the  South  were 
a  unit  against  the  treaty.  Dwight  declared  that  the 
people  of  New  England  would  take  no  part  in  a  war 
with  Great  Britain.  Said  he,  in  a  letter  to  Wolcott  : 
'^  Sooner  would  ninety-nine  out  of  a  hundred  of  our. 
"inhabitants  separate  from  the  Union  than  plunge 
"  themselves  into  an  abyss  of  misery."  Wolcott  writ- 
ing to  Noah  Webster,  expressed  his  impatience  at  the 
antagonism  between  the  agricultural  South  and  the 
commercial  East,  and  his  belief  that  'Hhe  great  sec- 
"  tions  of  the  United  States  will  not  long  continue  to 
''  be  agitated  as  they  have  been." 

Jefferson,  in  the  fourth  volume  of  his  Memoirs,  says 
that  John  Q.  Adams  called  upon  him  during  this  con- 
troversy over  the  embargo  laws  and  declared  that  he 
had  information  of  the  most  unmistakable  character 
that  certain  citizens  of  the  Eastern  States,  Massachu- 
setts particularly,  were  in  negotiation  with  the  British 
Government,  the  object  of  which  was  an  agreement 
that  the  New  England  States  should  take  no  further 
part  in  executing  the  embargo  laws  against  the  hostile 
British  Orders  in  Council,  and  that  without  formally 
declaring  their  separation  from  the  Union,  they  would 
withdraw  from  all  aid  and  obedience  to  it.  In  other 
words  they  would  resort  to  nullification. 

A  report  by  Mr.  Gore,  in  the  Massachusetts  Legis- 


68       THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

lature,  which  was  adopted  by  the  unanimous  Yote  of 
the  Federal  party,  declared  the  war  enforcing  the  em- 
bargo "  unjust,  oppressive  and  unconstitutional,  and  not 
"  binding."  Here  was  a  plain  and  explicit  nullification 
of  a  Federal  law.  If  the  laws  in  question  were  "  not 
"  binding,"  the  State  had  a  clear  right,  and  it  was  her 
duty  to  resist  them  if  she  saw  proper  to  do  so. 

The  political  economist,  Mathew  Carey,  writing  just 
after  the  peace  with  Great  Britain,  sets  forth  very 
pointedly  the  reasons  which  inflamed  the  sectional  jeal- 
ousy of  the  North  against  the  South. 

"The  naked  fact  is,  that  the  demogogues  in  the 
"Eastern  States,  not  satisfied  with  deriving  all  the 
"  benefit  fi:om  the  Southern  section  of  the  Union,  that 
"they  would  fi-om  so  many  wealthy  colonies;  with 
"  making  princely  fortunes  by  the  carriage  and  expor- 
"tation  of  its  bulky  and  valuable  productions,  and 
"  supplying  it  with  their  own  manufactures  and  the  pro- 
"  ductions  of  Europe  and  the  East  and  West  Indies,  to 
"  an  enormous  amount,  and  at  an  immense  profit,  have 
"  uniformly  treated  it  with  outrage,  insults  and  injury. 
"  And,  regardless  of  their  vital  interests,  the  Eastern 
"  States  were  lately  courting  their  own  destruction,  by 
"allowing  a  few  restless,  turbulent  men  to  lead  them 
"blindfold  to  a  separation,  which  was  pregnant  with 
"  their  certain  ruin.  Whenever  that  event  takes  place 
"  they  sink  into  insignificance.  If  a  separation  were 
"  desirable  to  any  part  of  the  Union,  it  would  be  to  the 
"Middle  and  Southern  States,  particularly  the  latter, 
"who  have  been  so  long  harassed  with  the  complaints, 
"the  restlessness,  the  turbulence  and  the  ingratitude  of 
"  the  Eastern  States,  that  their  patience  has  been  tried 
"almost   beyond    endurance.      'Jeshuran   waxed  fat 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.       59 

"  and  kicked ';  and  he  will  be  severely  punished  for  his 
"'  kicking  in  the  event  of  a  dissolution  of  the  Union." 

The  next  issue  between  the  South  and  North  was 
upon  the  acquisition  of  Louisiana.  Here,  again,  the 
North  exhibited  an  unpatriotic  jealousy  against  expan- 
sion of  territory.  In  this  matter  the  question  of 
slavery  was  not  mooted.  The  objection  was  to  the 
acquisition  of  any  portion  of  Louisiana — that  at  the 
head  waters  of  the  Mississippi,  as  well  as  that  at  its 
mouth.  Again,  Congress  and  the  country  were 
divided  by  geographical  lines,  and  the  two  discordant 
elements  became  even  more  embittered  against  each 
other  than  they  had  been  upon  the  Mississippi  Naviga- 
tion and  the  Embargo  questions.  It  was  openly 
declared  from  Northern  sources  that  separation  from 
the  Union  would  be  preferable  to  acquisition  of  Louis- 
iana. Plummer,  of  New  Hampshire,  said :  "  Admit  this 
"  Western  World  into  the  Union,  and  you  destroy  at 
''  once  the  weight  and  importance  of  the  Eastern  States 
"and  compel  them  to  estabHsh  a  separate  and  inde- 
"  pendent  empire."  Griswold,  of  Connecticut,  regarded 
as  a  leader  of  the  Federal  party,  said :  "  The  vast, 
"  unmanageable  extent  which  the  accession  of  Louisiana 
"  will  give  to  the  United  States,  the  consequent  disper- 
"  sion  of  our  population,  and  the  distribution  of  the 
"  balance,  which  it  is  so  important  to  maintain  between 
"  the  Eastern  and  Western  States,  threatens  at  no  very 
"  distant  day,  the  subversion  of  our  Union." 

The  disunion  design  of  the  Federal  party,  in  conse- 
quence oi*  the  acquisition  of  Louisiana  is  thus  shown 
by  John  Quincy  Adams,  who  in  1828  wrote:  "This 
"  design  had  been  formed  in  the  winter  of  1803  or 
"  1804,  immediately  after,  and  as  a  consequence  of  the 


60       THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

"  acquisition  of  Louisiana.  *  *  This  plan  was  so 
"  far  matured  that  the  proposal  had  been  made  to  an 
"  individual  to  permit  himself  at  the  proper  time  to  be 
"  placed  at  the  head  of  the  military  movements  which 
"  it  was  foreseen  would  be  necessary  for  carrying  it  into 
"  execution.  The  project^  I  repeat,  had  gone  to  the 
"  length  of  fixing  upon  a  military  leader  for  its  exe- 
"  cution." 

Mr.  Adams'  information  was  obtained  fi-om  Senator 
Tracy,  of  Connecticut,  who,  although  he  disapproved 
the  project,  was  made  acquainted  with  it  in  all  its  par- 
ticulars. The  Northern  Confederacy  was  to  extend,  if 
practicable,  so  far  South  as  to  include  Maryland.  The 
Susquehanna  was  suggested  as  another  boundary,  but 
if  New  York  could  not  be  won  over,  the  Hudson  was 
to  be  the  boundary.  Mr.  Adams  gives  incidents  of  a 
visit  to  Rufiis  King,  in  1804,  and  says:  "I  found 
"  there  sitting  Timothy  Pickering,  who,  shortly  after  I 
"  went  in,  took  leave  and  withdrew.  Mr.  King  said  to 
"  me,  ^Col.  Pickering  has  been  talking  to  me  about  a 
"  project  they  have  for  a  separation  of  the  States,  and 
"  a  Northern  Confederacy.'  " 

Governor  Plummer,  of  New  Hampshire,  was  an  open 
and  pronounced  secessionist.  In  a  letter  to  Mr. 
Adams,  he  admitted  that  he  "  was  a  disunionist  at  that 
'^period  ;  in  favor  of  forming  a  separate  government  in 
"  New  England  ;  that  he  was  consulted  on  such  a  plan 
"  by  Federal  members  of  Congress  fi-om  New  England." 
In  his  journal.  Governor  Plummer  mentions  that  in 
1804,  Timothy  Pickering,  James  Hillhouse  and  himself 
dined  with  Aaron  Burr ;  that  Hillhouse  "  unequivocally 
"  stated  that  it  was  his  opinion  that  the  United  States 
"would  soon  form  two  distinct  and  separate  govern- 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.       61 

"  ments."  Again  he  says  :  "  When  the  late  Samuel 
"Hunt  intimated  to  me  the  necessity  of  seceding 
"  from  the  Union,  he  observed  that  the  work  must 
"  commence  in  the  State  Legislatures,  so  that  those 
"  who  acted  should  be  supported  by  State  laws." 

When  Hillhouse  denied  the  statement  of  Adams, 
Governor  Plummer  made  the  following  entry  in  his 
journal :  "  There  is  no  circumstance  in  these  publica- 
"  tions  that  surprises  me  so  much  as  the  letter  of  James 
"  Hillhouse.  I  recollect  and  am  certain  that  on  return- 
"  ing  early  one  evening  from  dining  with  Aaron  Burr, 
"  this  same  Mr.  Hillhouse,  after  saying  to  me  that  New 
''  England  had  no  influence  in  the  government,  added 
"  in  an  animated  tone,  '  The  Eastern  States  must  and 
"  will  dissolve  the  Union,  and  form  a  separate  govern- 
"  ment  of  their  own,  and  the  sooner  they  do  this  the 
"  better.'  But  there  was  no  man  with  whom  I  con- 
"  versed  so  often,  so  fully,  and  so  freely  as  with  Roger 
"  Griswold.  He  was  without  doubt  or  hesitation  deci- 
'"  dedly  in  favor  of  dividing  the  Union  and  establibhing 
"  a  Northern  Confederacy." 

Gov.  Plummer  speaks  of  walking  for  hours  with 
Pickering,  who  said  "  that  he  thought  the  United 
"  States  too  large  and  their  interests  too  diversified  for 
^'  the  Union  to  continue,  and  that  New  England,  New 
"  York,  and  perhaps  Pennsylvania  might  and  ought  to 
"  form  a  separate  government.  He  then  paused,  and 
"  looking  me  fully  in  the  face,  awaited  my  reply.  I 
"  simply  asked  him  if  the  division  of  the  States  was 
''  not  the  object  which  General  Washington  most  pa- 
"thetically  warned  the  people  to  oppose.  He  said, 
"  *yes,  the  fear  of  it  was  a  ghost  that  for  a  long  time 
"  haunted  the  imagination  of  that  old  gentleman.'  " 


62       THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

From  the  day  of  the  ratification  of  the  Federal 
Constitution,  the  Southern  States  saw  themselves  out- 
stripped by  the  Northern  and  Eastern  States,  in  popu- 
lation and  wealth.  But  at  the  opening  of  the  present 
century  the  ao-ricultural  interests  of  the  South  received 
an  impetus  from  the  increased  value  of  cotton  planting, 
and  it  was  just  then  that  a  combination  of  circum- 
stances attracted  to  the  South  and  West  the  attention 
of  the  country  and  inflamed  that  jealousy  at  the  North 
which  had  survived  the  acquisition  of  the  Mississippi 
river  and  the  adoption  of  the  Jay  treaty. 

The  experiments  which  were  being  made  for  cheap- 
ening the  production  of  cotton,  by  applying  machinery 
to  the  removal  of  the  seed  promised  a  speedy  and  rapid 
appreciation  of  Southern  lands  and  power.  The  efforts 
which  had  been  made  by  General  Washington  and 
Governor  Telfair,  to  remove  from  the  gulf  country  all 
the  Indian  tribes ;  the  cession  by  Georgia  to  the 
United  States  of  all  the  territory  between  the  Chatta- 
hoochee and  the  Mississippi ;  the  prospect  of  a  speedy 
erection  of  this  territory  into  at  least  two  States ;  the 
fortunate  acquisition  by  President  Jefferson  of  Lou- 
isiana and  the  great  territory  stretching  from  the  Mis- 
sissippi river  to  the  Pacific  Ocean,  capable  of  erection 
into  a  hundred  -States  and  certain  of  giving  birth  to  at 
least  two  more  States  within  a  few  years — ^all  alarmed 
the  political  leaders  of  New  England  as  to  a  contin- 
uance of  their  power. 

For  some  years  to  come  they  might  control  the  pop- 
ular branch  of  Congress,  but,  if  these  schemes  were  to 
be  permitted,  the  new  States  would  soon  overshadow 
the  old  in  the  Senate.     The  labors  of  New  England 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.       63 

were  therefore  still   more   ardently   directed   towards 
curbing  the  power  of  the  great  southwest. 

So  long  as  the  commercial  States  controlled  by  New 
England  prevailed  in  the  Federal  Government,  the  de- 
sired curb  was  to  be  found  in  an  exercise  of  the  power 
of  Congress.  When  Virginia  and  Kentucky  pro- 
tested in  their  celebrated  resolutions  of  1798  against 
the  alien  and  sedition  laws,  and  declared  that  as  there 
was  no  umpire  to  settle  disputes  between  the  State  and 
.  Federal  Government,  each  State  must  decide  for  itself 
the  measure  of  its  grievances  and  the  mode  of  redress, 
all  of  the  commercial  States  at  once  denied  the 
doctrine.  No  matter  that  Jefferson,  the  author  of  the 
Declaration  of  Independence,  had  written  the  one  set 
of  resolutions,  and  Madison,  the  father  of  the  Consti- 
tution, had  written  the  other,  every  one  of  these  States 
admitted  the  power  of  Congress  to  enact  the  alien  and 
sedition  laws.  The  agricultural  States  denied  that 
power. 

But  when  the  growth  of  the  southwest  was  observed, 
and  the  acquisition  of  Louisiana  was  impending,  the 
very  men  and  the  very  States,  who  in  order  to  vindi- 
cate the  alien  and  sedition  laws,  denied  to  the  States 
all  power  to  decide  for  themselves  against  any  Federal 
act,  however  oppressive  or  iniquitous,  now  openly  and 
boldly  advocated  a  dissolution  of  the  Union. 

From  his  seat  in  Congress,  Josiah  Quincy,  a  leading 
statesman  of  Massachusetts,  declared  that  if  the  bill 
for  the  purchase  of  Louisiana  became  law  it  was  a  vir- 
tual dissolution  of  the  Union,  that  it  would  free  the 
States  from  their  moral  obligation ;  and  as  it  would  be 
the  right  of  all,  it  would  be  the  duty  of  some  to  pre- 
pare for  a  separation — amicably  if  they  could,  violently 


64       THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

if  they  must.  The  doctrine  of  secession  and  nullifica- 
tion thus  obtained  its  first  practical  application  in  New 
England.  The  embargo  affected  their  maritime  in- 
terests. Therefore  they  went  so  far  as  to  designate 
the  man  who  was  to  be  the  military  chief  of  their 
secession  movement.  The  acquisition  of  Louisiana 
threatened  their  political  supremacy.  Therefore  they 
declared  that  the  extension  of  our  territory  justified  vio- 
lent separation ;  and  we  find  Aaron  Burr,  a  prominent 
statesman  of  New  York,  relying  upon  the  tacit  consent 
of  the  North  and  the  possible  forbearance  of  the  South, 
organizing  an  armed  expedition  to  make  New  Orleans 
the  capital  of  a  great  southwestern  republic. 

This  spirit  of  sectionalism  acquired  additional  growth 
at  the  North,  and  especially  at  the  East,  during  the  war 
of  1812.  It  had  not  as  yet  appeared  at  the  South. 
While  the  South  rallied  as  one  man  to  the  aid  of  the 
oppressed  seamen  of  the  United  States  (all  of  northern 
birth),  the  States  of  New  England,  at  first  clamorous 
for  war,  so  soon  as  they  saw  that  their  ships  were  left 
idle  and  their  commerce  destroyed,  were  as  ardently 
clamorous  for  peace.  They  defamed  President  Madi- 
son, and  held  up  to  him,  "  the  Island  of  Elba !  or  a 
"  halter."  The  acts  of  nuUification  at  the  outbreak  of 
the  war  were  numerous.  The  resolutions  of  then-  leg- 
islatures went  as  far  as  the  more  celebrated  but  not 
more  pointed  resolutions  of  '98.  The  executives  of 
Connecticut  and  Massachusetts  refused  to  place  their 
militia,  \fhen  called  into  service,  under  command  of  the 
President,  as  required  by  the  Constitution.  The  Gov- 
ernor of  Vermont  ordered  the  return  of  the  militia  of 
that  State,  which  had  gone  upon  the  expedition  to 
Canada.     Nothing  was  left  undone  to  embarrass  the 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.       65 

financial  operations  of  the  Government,  to  prevent  the 
enlistment  of  troops,  to  keep  back  the  men  and  money 
of  New  England  from  the  service  of  the  Union,  and 
to  force  the  President  from  his  seat.  Illicit  trade  was 
carried  on  with  the  enemy,  and  free  traffic  was  con- 
ducted between  Massachusetts  and  Great  Britain 
through  a  separate  custom  house.  Beacon  fires  were 
lighted  as  signals  to  the  enemy.  The  fall  of  Detroit 
was  openly  rejoiced  at  The  acts  of  individuals  soon 
became  the  acts  of  government.  The  Massachusetts 
Legislature  authorized  delegates  to  meet  like  delegates 
fi:om  other  New  England  States,  at  Hartford,  to  con- 
sult upon  the  subject  of  "  their  pubKc  grievances  and 
"  concerns,"  and  upon  "  the  best  means  of  preserving 
"  their  resources."  Chief  among  the  recommendations 
of  that  convention  was — that  an  amendment  be  pro- 
posed "  for  restraining  Congress  in  the  exercise  of  an 
"  unUmited  power  to  make  new  States  and  to  admit 
"  them  into  the  Union."  Through  all  their  proceed- 
ings the  under-current  of  complaint  was  at  the  loss  of 
political  power  by  the  growth  of  the  States.  It  was 
the  old  jealousy  of  the  small  States  against  the  large 
States  which  had  so  seriously  obstructed  the  formation 
of  the  Constitution. 

A  clergyman  of  Boston  expressed  the  sentiment  of 
the  hour  when  he  said — "  The  Union  has  long  since 
"  been  virtually  dissolved,  and  it  is  full  time  that  this 
"part  of  the  dis-united  States  should  take  care  of 
"  itself"  Another  doctor  of  divinity  thu^  addressed 
his  flock :  ''The  Israelites  became  weary  of  yielding 
"the  fi:uit  of  their  labor  to  pamper  their  splendid 
<'  tyrants.  They  left  their  political  woes.  They  sep- 
"  arated ;  where  is  our  Moses  ?     Where  the  rod  of  his 


m  THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

"  miracles  ?  Where  is  our  Aaron  ?  Alas  !  no  voice 
"  from  the  burning  bush  has  directed  them  here." 

An  irrepressible  conilict  was  admitted  at  that  day  as 
existing  between  the  smaller  States  of  the  East,  which 
were  engaged  in  commercial  pursuits,  and  the  larger 
States  of  the  South,  which  were  engaged  more  espe- 
cially in  agriculture.  ^'  Events  may  prove,"  says  the 
Journal  of  the  Hartford  Convention,  January  4,  1815, 
"  that  the  causes  of  our  calamity  are  deep  and  perma- 
"  nent.  They  may  be  found  to  proceed,  not  merely  from 
"  blindness  of  prejudice,  pride  of  opinion,  violence  of 
"  party  spirit,  or  the  confusion  of  the  times;  but  they 
*'  may  be  traced  to  implacable  combinations  of  indi- 
"  viduals  or  States,  to  monopolize  power  and  office  and 
"  Lo  trample  without  remorse  upon  the  rights  and 
"  interests  of  the  commercial  sections  of  the  Union." 

"  Whenever  it  shall  appear,"  continues  the  Journal, 
"  that  these  causes  are  radical  and  permanent,  a  separa- 
"  tion  by  equitable  anangement  will  be  preferable  to  an 
'^  alliance  hy  constraint  among  nominal  friends  hut  real 
"  enemies,  inflamed  hy  mutual  hatreds  and  jealousies^ 
''and  inviting  hy  intestine  divisions^  contempt  and 
"  aggressions  from  abroad'''  The  Hartford  Convention, 
having  thus  announced  that  there  were  such  serious 
conflicts  of  interest  between  the  commercial  and  agri- 
cultural States,  the  maritime  and  the  inland,  as  to 
threaten  a  permanent  calamity  to  the  States  of  New 
England,  proceeded  to  announce  the  remedy  for  the 
evil.  The  remedy  proposed  was  precisely  that  sug- 
gested by  the  Virginia  and  Kentucky  resolutions.  The 
Convention  said :  "  That  Acts  of  Congress  in  violation 
"  of  the  Constitution  are  absolutely  void,  is  an  unde- 
^'niablo  position.     It  does  not,  however,  consist  with 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.       67 

"the  respect  from  a  confederate  State  towards  the 
"  general  government,  to  fly  to  open  resistance  upon 
"  every  infraction  of  the  Constitution.  The  mode  and 
"  the  energy  of  the  opposition  should  always  conform 
"  to  the  nature  of  the  violation,  the  intention  of  the 
"  authors,  the  extent  of  the  evil  inflicted,  the  determi- 
"  nation  manifested  to  persist  in  it,  and  the  danger  of 
"delay.  But  in  cases  of  deliberate,  dangerous,  and 
"  palpable  infractions  of  the  Constitution,  affecting  the 
"'sovereignty  of  the  State,  and  the  liberties  of  the 
"  people ;  it  is  not  only  the  right,  but  the  duty,  of  such 
"  State  to  interpose  its  authority  for  their  protection,  in 
"  the  manner  best  calculated  to  secure  that  end.  When 
"  emergencies  occur,  which  are  either  beyond  the  reach 
"  of  judicial  tribunals,  or  too  pressing  to  admit  of  delay 
"  incident  to  their  forms,  States  which  have  no  common 
"  Umpire,  must  be  their  own  judges  and  execute  their 
"  OWN  decisions." 

It  will  be  observed  that  the  Convention  recognized 
the  possibility  of  emergencies  beyond  the  reach  of 
judicial  tribunals,  and  for  the  settlement  of  which  there 
is  no  common  umpire.  In  the  debate  between  Mr. 
Webster  and  Mr.  Hayne,  in  1830,  at  the  session  of 
Congress  during  which  the  question  arose  as  to  the 
conflicting  jurisdiction  of  the.  State  of  Georgia  and 
the  Federal  Government,  the  umpire  declared  by  Mr. 
Webster,  in  all  cases  affecting  the  powers  of  the  gen- 
eral government,  was  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United 
States.  Mr.  Hayne  insisted  that  courts,  whether  su- 
preme or  inferior,  are  the  mere  creatures  of  the  sover- 
eign power  designed  to  expound  and  carry  into  effect 
its  sovereign  wiU,  and  that  no  independent  State  ever 
yet  submitted  to  a  Judge  upon  the  bench  the  true  coa- 


68       THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

struction  of  a  compact  between  itself  and  another  sov- 
ereign. In  proof  that  the  judiciary  were  not  designed 
to  act  as  umpires  it  is  only  necessary  to  observe  that 
in  a  great  majority  of  cases  the  Supreme  Court  could 
manifestly  not  take  jurisdiction  of  the  matters  in  dis- 
pute. "  Whenever  it  may  be  designed  by  the  Federal 
'^  Government,"  prophesied  Mr.  Hayne,  "  to  commit  a 
"  violation  of  the  Constitution,  it  can  be  done  and 
"  always  will  be  done  in  such  a  manner  as  to  deprive 
"  the  court  of  all  jurisdiction  over  the  subject."  Like- 
wise Mr.  Madison,  in  his  report  upon  the  Virginia  Res- 
olutions of  '98,  says  :  "But  it  is  objected  that  the 
"judicial  authority  is  to  be  regarded  as  the  sole  expos- 
"  iter  of  the  Constitution  in  their  last  resort ;  and  it 
"  may  be  asked,  for  what  reason  the  declaration  by  the 
"  general  assembly,  supposing  it  to  be  theoretically 
"  true,  could  be  required  at  the  present  day,  and  in  so 
"  solemn  a  manner  ?  On  this  objection,  it  might  be 
"  observed,  first,  that  there  may  be  instances  of  usurped 
"power  which  the  forms  of  the  Constitution  would 
"  never  draw  within  the  control  of  the  judiciary  depart- 
"  ment ;  secondly,  that  if  the  decision  of  the  judiciary 
"  be  raised  above  the  authority  of  the  sovereign  parties 
"  to  the  Constitution,  the  decisions  of  the  other  depart- 
"  ments,  not  carried  by  the  forms  of  the  Constitution 
"before  the  judiciary,  must  be  equally  authoritative 
"  and  final  with  the  decisions  of  that  department." 

These  views  of  Mr.  Hayne  and  of  Mr.  Madison, 
accord  with  the  opinion  which  prevailed  at  the  Hartford 
Convention,  as  to  the  impotency  of  the  Supreme  Court 
to  decide  grave  questions  affecting  the  sovereignty  of  a 
state.  A  few  years  later  than  the  fi;reat  Webster- 
Hayne  debate,  it  was  seen  that  the  Supreme  Court 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.       69 

refused  to  decide  as  to  the  legitimate  sovereignty  of 
Rhode  Island,  referring  the  whole  question  to  the  polit- 
ical department  of  the  government,  and  following  its 
decision.  To  us,  of  the  present  day,  who  have  seen 
the  Supreme  Court  shorn  of  its  powers,  or  increased 
in  members,  by  the  political  department  of  the  govern- 
ment, at  pleasure,  in  order  to  secure  a  decision  one  way, 
or  to  defeat  a  decision  another  way,  it  is  evident  that 
the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  is  no  umpire 
betweeil  the  States  and  the  Federal  Government. 

The  spirit  of  sectionalism  thus  owed  its  birth  to  New 
England,  and  found  the  only  basis  for  its  independence 
in  those  principles  of  State  sovereignty  which  remained 
undisputed  for  forty  years  from  the  foundation  of  the 
government.  Mr.  John  Quincy  Adams,  then  Minister 
to  Russia,  writing  from  St.  Petersburgh,  October  24th, 
1813,  says:  "If  New  England  loses  her  influence  in 
"  the  councils  of  the  Union,  it  will  not  be  owing  to  any 
"diminution  of  her  population,  occasioned  by  these 
**  emigrations :  it  will  be  from  the  partial,  sectarian,  or 
"as  Hamilton  has  called  it,  clannish  spirit,  which 
'*  makes  so  many  of  her  political  leaders  jealous  and 
"  envious  of  the  West  and  South.  This  spirit  is  in  its 
"  nature,  narrow  and  contracted,  and  it  always  works 
"  by  means  like  itself  Its  natural  tendency  is  to  excite 
*^  and  provoke  a  counteracting  spirit  of  the  same  char- 
"  acter;  and  it  has  actually  produced  that  effect  in  our 
^' country P  Such  is  the  testimony  of  one  of  New 
England's  representative  sons  against  his  own  people. 

Is  it  surprising  that  this  partial,  selfish,  clannish 
spirit  of  sectionalism  which  planted  itself  boldly  on  the 
extremest  doctrines  of  State  rights,  should  arouse  a 
counteracting  spirit  in  the  people  of  the  Gulf  States 


70       THE  CHABLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

and  lead  them  to  assert  the  sovereignty  of  their  right- 
ful State  laws  over  every  inch  of  their  territory,  even 
though  it  should  be  in  the  face  of  a  writ  of  error  from 
the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  and  in  the 
face  of  Federal  troops  ? 

The  greater  part  of  the  southwest  was  finally  and 
completely  opened  up  to  settlement  by  annexation  to 
the  United  States,  as  we  have  seen,  just  as  the  consti- 
tutional questions  which  divided  the  friends  of  Jeffer- 
son fi"om  those  of  Hamilton,  were  the  subject  of  vio- 
lent party  contention.  The  most  vital  of  these  ques- 
tions affected  this  district  closely,  and  the.  people  were 
educated  in  politics  by  practical  experience  of  the 
operation  of  the  Constitution  as  construed  by  one  party 
or  the  other.  Their  first  lesson  in  constitutional  law 
came  from  that  doctrine  of  Jefferson  and  Madison,  set 
forth  in  the  resolutions  of  1798,  which  was  a  few  years 
later  incorporated  in  the  resolutions  of  the  Hartford 
Convention. 

The  Virginia  Resolutions,  adopted  by  her  Legislature, 
December  24th,  1798,  were  written  by  James  Madison, 
who  has  been  styled  "  the  Father  of  the  Constitution." 
The  most  important  paragraph  of  those  Resolutions  is 
the  one  which  declares  that  "  in  case  of  a  deliberate, 
"  palpable,  and  dangerous  exercise  of  other  powers  not 
"  granted  by  the  said  compact,  the  States  who  are 
"  parties  thereto,  have  the  right  and  are  in  duty  bound 
"  to  interpose  for  arresting  the  progress  of  the  evil,  and 
"  for  maintaining  within  their  respective  limits  the 
"authorities,  rights,  and  liberties,  appertaining  to 
"  them." 

The  Kentucky  Resolutions,  adopted  by  that  State, 
November   10th,   1799,  were   written   by  Jefferson, 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.       71 

after  consultation  with  Madison.  The  language  made 
use  of  was  not  so  guarded  as  that  of  the  Virginia  reso- 
lutions. It  declared  that  the  Federal  Government 
"  was  not  made  the  exclusive  or  final  judge  of  the 
"  extent  of  the  powers  delegated  to  itself,  since  that 
"would  have  made  its  discretion,  and  not  the 
" Constitution,  the  measure  of  its  powers:  but  that  as 
"  in  all  other  cases  of  compact  between  parties  having 
"  no  common  judge,  each  party  has  an  equal  right  to 
"judge  for  itself,  as  well  of  infractions  as  of  the  mode 
"  and  measure  of  redress."  The  Resolutions  went  on  to 
define  the  manner  in  which  this  principle  might  be  put 
into  practice,  by  declaring  that  "  the  several  States  who 
"  formed  that  instrument  [the  Constitution]  being  sov- 
"ereign  and  independent,  have  the  unquestionable 
'^  right  to  judge  of  the  infraction  :  and  that  a  nuUifica- 
"tion  by  those  sovereignties  of  all  unauthorized  acts 
"  done  under  color  of  that  instrument,  is  the  rightful 
"remedy." 

At  a  later  day,  when  the  sentiment  in  fiivor  of 
Union  had  become  strengthened  by  time  and  by  the 
growing  greatness  of  the  Republic,  it  was  endeavored 
to  argue  away  the  plain  meaning  of  these  celebrated 
resolutions.  Madison,  in  1831,  asserted  that  his  Reso- 
lutions were  merely  declaratory  of  opinion,  that  they 
pointed  out  no  mode  of  correcting  illegal  Federal  acts, 
that  the  words  "  to  interpose "  meant  legal  interpo- 
sition, and  that  the  word  "  nuUification  "  which  appears 
in  the  Kentucky  Resolutions  was  not  to  be  found  in  the 
Virginia  Resolutions.  Benton,  in  his  "  Thirty  Years' 
View,"  attempts  a  defense  of  Jeflerson,  by  asserting 
that  he  was  not  the  author  of  the  Kentucky  Resolu- 
tions.    The  publication  of  Jefferson's  Works  at  a  later 


72  THfi  CUABLIU  OP  Tfitfi  CONFEBERACt^. 

day  refutes  the  denial  of  Benton,  and  the  evasions  of 
Madison.  There  were  found  among  his  papers,  two 
original  drafts,  in  Jefferson's  own  handwriting,  of  the 
Kentucky  Resolutions.  In  one  of  them  is  this  resolu- 
tion: that  when  the  general  government  assumes 
powers  "  which  have  not  been  delegated,  a  nulHfication 
^"  of  the  Act,  is  the  rightful  remedy :  that  every  State 
"  has  a  natural  right,  in  cases  not  within  the  compact 
"  [casus  non  foederis^  to  nullify  of  their  own  authority, 
"all  assumptions  of  power  by  others  within  their 
'Mimits.", 

Although  the  Virginia  Resolutions  used  the  words 
"to  interpose,"  where  Kentucky  used  the  word 
"  nullify,"  there  is  not  room  for  a  shadow  of  doubt  that 
both  meant  the  same  thing.  Jefferson  says  that  the 
conference  on  the  Kentucky  Resolutions  took  place 
between  him  and  the  two  brothers  Nicholas,  and  he 
adds :  "  I  think  Mr.  Madison  was  either  with  us,  or 
"consulted,  but  my  memory  is  uncertain  as  to  the 
"minute  details."  The  two  sets  of  resolutions  bear 
upon  their  face  evidence  of  consultation  and  unity  of 
sentiment  between  the  two  distinguished  authors.  Von 
HoLST,  professor  at  the  University  of  Freidburg,  in  his 
Constitutional  History  of  the  United  States,  very  justly 
says,  with  reference  to  these  Resolutions :  "  In  a  word, 
"  as  the  principles  advanced  in  the  Resolutions  were  the 
"  same,  they  led  to  the  same  logical  conclusions,  which 
*  were  clearly  expressed  in  the  Kentucky  Resolutions, 
"  namely,  the  right  of  the  States,  through  the  organ  of 
"  their  Legislatures,  to  '  resolve '  that  laws  of  Congress 
"  were  uneonstitutional,  and  therefore  void  and  of  no 
"effect." 

Jefferson  wrote  to  Madison,  November  17th,  1798, 


THE  CRAJ3LE  OP  THE  CONFEDERACY.  73 

• 

enclosing  him  a  draft  of  the  Kentucky  Resolutions, 
and  we  have  nowhere^  in  evidence,  any  protest  against, 
or  difference  of  opinion,  as  to  the  use  of  the  word 
''  nullification,"  expressed  by  Madison,  until  the  lapse 
of  more  than  thirty  years,  when  South  Carolina,  under 
the  teachings  of  Calhoun,  put  in  practical  effect  the 
doctrines  of  the  Kentucky  Resolutions.  .  John  Quincy 
Adams,  in  his  eulogy  on  Madison,  said:  ^'Concurring 
"  in  the  doctrine  that  the  separate  States  have  a  right 
"  to  interpose  in  cases  of  palpable  infractions  of  the 
"  Constitution  by  the  government  of  the  United  States, 
"  and  that  the  ahen  and  seditioi^  acts  presented  a  case 
"of  such  infraction,  Mr.  Jefferson  considered  them 
"  as  absolutely  null  and  void,  and  thought  the  State 
"  Legislatures  competent,  not  only  to  declare  but  to 
"  make  them  so,  to  resist  their  execution  within  their 
"  respective  borders  by  physical  force  and  to  secede 
"  from  the  Union  rather  than  submit  to  them,  if  at- 
"  tempted  to  be  carried  into  execution  by  force." 

Whatever  doubt  there  may  be  as  to  what  Madison 
meant  by  the  right  and  duty  of  the  State  "to  interpose" 
to  prevent  Federal  infractions  of  the  Constitution,  there 
is  no  doubt  as  to  what  Jefferson  meant,  and  not  the 
least  doubt  as  to  what  Virginia  meant  The  State  of 
Virginia  meant  precisely  what  the  State  of  Kentucky 
had  said.  At  this  time  Hamilton  wrote  to  Drayton, 
Speaker  of  the  House,  charging  that  the  Virginia  Res- 
olutions meant  the  overthrow  of  the  Government,  and 
that  her  hostile  declarations  had  been  followed  up  by 
preparations  for  the  use  of  force.  He  declared  that 
Virginia  had  taken  steps  to  put  her  militia  on  a  war 
footing,  and  had  established  magazines  and  arsenals. 
The  truth  of  this  charge  is  not  denied  by   Randall, 


74       THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

the  biographer  of  JeiFerson.  Indeed,  at  a  somewhat 
later  day,  John  Randolph  admitted  in  Congress  that 
there  was  no  longer  any  cause  for  concealing  that  the 
great  armory  at  Richmond  was  built  to  enable  the 
State  of  Virginia  to  resist  by  force  the  encroachments 
of  the  then  administration  upon  her  indisputable 
riiihts. 

The  views  of  the  anti-Federahsts  were  well  expressed 
by  John  Randolph  when  in  March,  1799,  he  debated 
with  Patrick  Henry  at  Charlotte  Courthouse,  Virginia. 
Mr.  Henry,  at  the  request  of  Washington,  had  come 
from  his  retirement  and  offered  himself  as  candidate 
for  the  legislature,  with  the  purpose  of  defending  the 
acts  and  doctrines  of  the  Federal  administration  under 
Adams.  Randolph  was  a  mere  youth,  and  his  reply  to 
Henry  was  the  first  of  a  long  series  of  brilliant  ad- 
dresses. He  had  been  educated  in  the  ideas  of  Jeffer- 
son and  Madison.  Said  he  :  "  In  questions  of  meum 
"  and  tuum,  where  rights  of  property  are  concerned, 
"  and  some  other  cases  specified  in  the  Constitution,  I 
"  grant  you  that  the  Federal  judiciary  may  pronounce 
"  on  the  vaUdity  of  the  law.  But  in  questions  involv- 
"  ing  the  right  to  power,  whether  this  or  that  power 
"  has  been  delegated  or  reserved,  they  cannot  and 
"  ought  not  to  be  the  arbiter ;  that  question  has  been 
'-  left,  as  it  always  was,  and  always  must  be  left,  to  be 
'*  determined  among  sovereignties  in  the  best  way  they 
"can.  Political  wisdom  has  not  yet  discovered  any 
"  infallible  mathematical  rule  by  which  to  determine 
''  the  assumptions  of  power  between  these  who  know  no 
"  other  law  or  Umitation,  save  that  imposed  upon  them 
"  by  their  own  consent,  and  which  they  can  abrogate 
"  at  pleasure."     He  continued  :     "  Shall  the  creature 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERAOY.       75 

"  of  the  States  be  the  sole  judge  of  the  legality  or  con- 
"  stitutionality  of  its  acts,  in  a  question  of  power 
"  between  them  and  the  States  ?  Shall  they  who 
"  assert  a  right  be  the  sole  judges  of  their  authority  to 
''  claim  and  to  exercise  it  ?  Does  not  all  power  seek  to 
"  enlarge  itself? — grow  on  that  it  feeds  upon  ?  Has 
"  not  that  been  the  history  of  all  encroachment,  all 
"usurpation?" 

Mr.  Henry  had  said  that  the  remedy  for  unau- 
thorized Federal  laws,  when  the  Federal  judiciary  had 
no  cognizance  of  the  case,  would  be  found  in  the  priv- 
ilege and  right  of  petition.  "Petition!  Whom  are 
'^  we  to  petition  ?  "  replied  Randolph.  "  Those  who 
"  are  the  projectors  of  these  measures,  who  voted  for 
"  them  and  forced  them  upon  you  in  spite  of  your  will  ? 
"  Would  not  those  men  laugh  at  your  petition,  and,  in 
"  the  pride  and  insolence  of  new  born  power,  trample  it 
"  under  their  feet  with  disdain  ?  " 

From  this  brief  review  of  the  opinions  and  wishes 
of  political  leaders  of  both  of  the  early  parties,  it  is 
seen  that  the  right  of  nullification  and  secession  was 
recognized  by -either  party  whenever  the  administration 
was  in  the  hands  of  its  opponents,  or  whenever  the  ten- 
dency of  events  pointed  to  a  diminution  of  the  power 
and  influence  of  the  section  in  which  its  strength  lay. 
The  friends  of  Jefferson  might  threaten  secession  one 
day  because  of  the  sedition  act ;  but  it  was  the  party 
of  Adams  which  threatened  disunion  on  the  next  day 
because  of  the  extension  of  territory  or  of  an  embargo 
upon  commerce.  Under  these  leaders  the  Southwest 
came  into  existence  and  began  its  wonderful  growth. 
At  their  very  birth  the  Gulf  States  had  seen  a  des- 
perate attempt   by  New  England   to   strangle   them 


76       THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

under  the  continued  rule  of  Spain  and  of  the  Indian 
savage.  The  first  political  lesson  learned  in  infancy 
was  that  they  were  a  bastard  offspring,  regarded  with 
aversion  by  the  mother  who  should  have  nourished 
them.  The  first  pohtical  cry  that  met  their  ears  was 
the  cry  fi™om  Massachusetts,  that  their  accession  to  the 
Union  was  justifiable  cause  for  disunion,  and  a  similar 
cry  from  Virginia  that  each  State  has  the  right  to 
judge  for  itself  of  an  infraction  of  the  Constitution  and 
to  assert  the  mode  of  redress. 


OHA.FTER    IV. 


Jurisdiction  of  the  United  States  Over  Indian  Tribes — The 
Fee  /Simple  of  Lands  Occupied  by  the  Tribes — The 
Yazoo  Frauds — The  Decision  in  the  €ase  of  Fletcher 
vs.  Feck — Indignation  of  the  People  of  Georgia — Con- 
stitutional Questions  groiving  out  of  that  Decision^  &c. 


"  Congress  have  the  exclusive  right  of  pre-emption  to  all  Indian 
lands  lying  within  the  territories  of  the  United  States.  *  *  *  The  title 
is  in  the  United  States  by  the  treaty  of  peace  with  Great  Britain,  and  by 
subsequent  cessions  from  France  and  Spain,  and  by  cessions  from  the  in- 
dividual States ;  and  the  Indians  have  only  a  right  of  occupancy  and  the 
United  States  possftjs  the  legal  title  subject  to  that  occupancy,  and  with 
an  absolute  and  exclusive  right  to  extinguish  the  Indian  title  of  occu- 
pancy either  by  conquest  or  purchase." 

Kent's  Commentaries  on  American  Law. 


"  Randolph  was  in  Georgia  at  the  time  of  the  perpetration  of  this 
villainy,  and  participated  in  the  shame  and  mortification  of  his  friends 
at  seeing  persons  reputed  religious  and  respectable,  effecting  a  public 
robbery,  by  bribing  the  legislature  of  the  State,  and  reducing  them  to  the 
horrors  of  treachery  and  perjury.  A  more  detestable,  impudent,  and 
dangerous  villainy  is  not  to  be  found  on  record." 

Garland's  Life  of  RandoiiPH. 

Under  the  Articles  of  Confederation  the  United  States 
had  the  power  to  manage  all  afiairs  with  the  Indian 
nations  not  members  of  a  State.  The  language  of  the 
article  conveying  the  power  was  this :  "  The  United 
"  States  in  Congjress  assembled,  shall  also  have  the  sole 
"  and  exclusive  right  and  power  of  *  "*"  regulating 
''  the  trade  and  managing  all  aflairs  with  the  Indians, 
"  not  members  of  any  of  the  States,  provided  that  the 
"  legislative  right  of  any  State  within  its  own  limits  be 
"  not  infiinged  or  violated." 


78       THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

It  was  claimed  under  this  grant  that  the  Federal 
Government  could  manage  all  Indian  affairs  of  whatever 
character,  except  affairs  relating  to  individual  Indians 
who  may  have  subjected  themselves  to  State  laws  and 
become  citizens  of  the  State.  In  all  other  cases, 
whether  the  Indian  tribe  resided  within  or  without  the 
limits  of  a  State,  the  United  States  alone  cr.uld  regulate 
and  rule  them.  It  was  seen  at  once  that  this  Federal 
jurisdiction  must  conflict  with  the  right  of  a  State  to 
rule  the  people  of  every  class  within  its  own  limits,  and 
that  interminable  confusion  would  result  from  the  sub- 
jection of  one  class  of  the  people  within  a  State  to  one 
set  of  laws,  and  those  of  another  to  another  set.  When, 
therefore,  the  Constitution  was  framed, 'the  States  de- 
clined to  renew  this  grant ;  but  contented  themselves 
simply  with  adopting  this  provision,  the  only  one  in 
that  instrument  referring  to  the  Indian  : 

"  The  Congress  shall  have  power  *  *  to  regu- 
"  late  commerce  with  foreign  nations,  and  among  the 
"  several  States  and  with  the  Indian  tribes." 

The  plain  meaning  of  this  section  is  that  the  United 
States  should  regulate  commerce  with  those  Indian 
tribes  which  dwelt  upon  lands  not  belonging  to  a  State, 
and  which  were  outside  the  jurisdiction  of  a  State. 
This  is  evident  from  the  fact  that  commerce  with  the 
Indian  tribes  alluded  to  is  placed  in  connection  with 
commerce  between  the  States  and  foreign  governments. 
The  right  to  manage  all  affairs  with  the  Indians,  such 
as  the  United  States  possessed  under  the  articles  was 
withdrawn  under  the  Constitution,  and  yet  the  Fedeml 
Government  proceeded  under  the  Constitution  to  exer- 
cise the  authority  it  wielded  under  the  articles,  to  reg- 
ulate commerce  with  Indian  tribes,  both  within  and 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.       79 

without  the  Hmits  of  a  State,  and  also  to  manage  all 
Indian  affairs,  without  regard  to  whether  the  tribes 
were  within  or  without  the  State. 

Such  a  claim,  and  an  attempt  to  enforce  it,  was  the 
occasion  of  serious  difficulty  between  the  Federal  Gov- 
ernment and  the  State  of  Georgia  from  an  early  day. 
The  questions  which  sprang  from  this 'claim,  agitated 
the  people  of  Georgia,  Alabama  and  Mississippi,  from 
the  year  1795  to  the  close  of  the  administration  of 
President  Jackson,  a  period  of  more  than  forty  years. 
Notwithstanding  the  denunciations  which  have  been 
hurled  at  the  State  of  Georgia  for  her  action  and  posi- 
tion in  these  Indian  questions,  a  review  of  the  facts 
and  the  law,  must  convince  every  dispassionate  reader 
that  at  each  step  of  the  controversy,. the  people  of  the 
Southwest  are  vindicated. 

The  first  question  which  arose  between  the  State  of 
Georgia  and  the  Federal  Government  was,  who  pos- 
sessed the  lee  simple  of  the  lands  lying  within  the 
boundaries  of  the  State,  but  occupied  by  Indian  tribes  ? 
An  answer  to  this  question  is  found  in  the  International 
Law  which  prevailed  among  Christian  Powers  at  the 
period  of  the  discovery  of  America. 

When  the  American  Continent  was  discovered  by 
the  Europeans,  the  several  nations  who  settled  it  with 
colonies  united  in  the  declaration  that  discovery  gave  a 
title  to  the  government  by  whose  subjects  it  was  made, 
against  all  other  European  governments  whose  title 
might  be  consummated  by  possession.  The  nation 
making  the  discovery  was  recognized  among  Christian 
people  as  having  the  sole  right  to  make  terms  with  the 
Indians,  and  to  plant  settlements.  The  Indians  were 
admitted  to  be  the  rightful  occupants  of  the  soil  with  a 


80       THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

legal,  as  well  as  just,  claim  to  retain  pobsession  of  it, 
and  to  use  it  according  to  their  own  discretion ;  but 
their  rights  to  complete  sovereignty  were  necessarily 
diminished,  j^nd  their  power  to  dispose  of  the  soil  at 
their  own  will,  to  whomever  they  pleased,  was  denied  by 
the  original  fundamental  principle,  that  discovery  gave 
exclusive  title  to  those  who  made  it. 

While  the  different  nations  of  Europe  respected  the 
rights  of  the  natives,  as  occupants,  they  asserted  the 
ultimate  dominion  to  be  in  themselves:  and  claimed 
and  exercised  as  a  conveyance  of  this  ultimate  domin- 
ion, a  power  to  grant  the  soil  while  yet  in  possession  of 
the  natives.  These  grants  have  been  understood  by 
all,  say  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States,  to 
convey  a  title  to  the  grantees,  subject  only  to  the 
Indian  right  of  occupancy. 

Spain,  in  all  her  discussions  with  France,  Great 
Britain  and  the  United  States,  based  her  title  on  the 
rights  given  by  discovery.  Upon  the  same  basis  rested 
the  claim  of  Portugal  to  the  Brazils :  and  upon  this 
basis,  France  claimed  all  Canada  and  Acadie,  as  well  as 
Louisiana,  when  her  population  was  insignificant,  and 
when  the  Indians  occupied  nearly  all  the  country. 
Holland  based  its  title  to  the  New  Netherlands,  upon 
the  discovery  by  Hudson. 

Great  Britain  recognized  with  equal  distinctness  the 
rights  of  discovery.  In  1496  Cabot  was  commissioned 
to  take  possession  in  the  name  of  the  King  of  England 
of  all  countries  he  might  find,  "  then  unknown  to  all 
"  Christian  people."  Here  we  find  asserted  the  right 
to  take  possession  of  the  country,  notwithstanding  the 
occupancy  of  the  natives  who  were  heathens,  and  at 
the  same  time  admitting  the  prior  title  of  any  Chiistian 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.       81 

people  who  may  have  made  a  previous  discovery. 
The  charter  granted  to  Sir  Humphrey  Gilbert  in  1517 
authorizes  him  to  discover  and  take  possession  of  such 
remote,  heathen  and  barbarous  lands  as  were  not  pos- 
sessed by  any  Christian  prince  or  people.  This  charter 
was  afterwards  renewed  to  Sir  Walter  Raleigh,  in  nearly 
the  same  terms.  In  1606,  by  charter,  afterwards  en- 
larged in  1609,  James  I  granted  to  colonists  all  the 
lands  between  the  thirty-fourth  and  forty-first  degrees 
of  north  latitude,  along  the  sea  coast  and  into  the  land 
from  sea  to  sea.  In  all  of  this  territory  the  soil,  at  the 
time  the  grants  were  made,  was  occupied  by  the  Indians; 
yet  almost  every  title  within  these  boundaries  is  depen- 
dent on  these  grants.  It  has  never  been  objected  to 
any  of  these  original  grants  that  the  title  as  well  as 
possession  was  in  the  Indians  when  it  was  made,  and 
that  it  passed  nothing  on  that  account. 

Under  all  the  treaties  which  affected  the  possession 
of  this  country  by  European  states,  the  title  given  by 
discovery  was  relied  upon,  and  the  fact  that  the  ter- 
ritory was  largely,  often  entirely,  occupied  by  Indian 
tribes,  was  ignored  as  of  no  importance.  Such  was  the 
case  uqder  the  treaty  of  Utrecht,  in  1703,  when  France 
ceded  Nova  Scotia  to  Great  Britain ;  and  under  the 
treaty  of  1763,  when  Spain  ceded  Florida  to  Great 
Britain ;  and  also  under  the  secret  treaty  when  France 
ceded  Louisiana  to  Spain.  All  the  nations  of  Europe 
have  invariably  asserted  for  themselves  and  recognized 
in  others  the  exclusive  right  of  the  discoverer  to  appro- 
priate the  lands  occupied  by  the  Indian. 

The  American  States  have  recognized  the  principle 
thus  inherited  from  the  old  world.  At  the  close  of  the 
Revolution,  Great  Britain  conveyed  all  of  her  rights, 


BBS  THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

proprietary  and  territorial,  to  the  colonies,  and  thereby 
all  of  her  rights  to  the  soil  passed  to  the  States.  "  It 
^*has  never  been  doubted,"  says  Chief  Justice  Mar- 
shall, in  his  opinion  in  the  case  of  Johnson  vs.  Mcin- 
tosh, "that  either  the  United  States  or  the  several 
"  States  had  a  clear  title  to  all  the  lands  within  the 
*'  boundary  lines  described  in  the  treaty,  subject  only 
"  to  the  Indian  right  of  occupancy,  and  that  the  ex- 
"  elusive  power  to  extinguish  that  right  was  vested  in 
"  that  government  which  might  constitutionally  exer- 
"  cise  it." 

Virginia  in  1779  passed  an  act  declaring  her  exclu- 
sive right  of  pre-emption  from  the  Indians,  of  all  the 
lands  within  the  limits  of  her  chartered  territory,  and 
denying  the  right  of  any  person  to  buy  lands  jfrom  the 
Indians.  The  territory  ceded  by  Virginia  to  the  Fed- 
eral Government  was  occupied  by  numerous  and  war- 
like tribes  of  Indians,  but  the  exclusive  right  of  the 
United  States  to  extinguish  their  title  and  to  grant  the 
soil  has  never  been  doubted. 

In  1845,  in  a  case  before  the  Supreme  Court  of  the 
United  States,  (United  States  vs.  Rogers,)  Chief 
Justice  Taney  used  this  language :  *'  It  is  our  duty  to 
"expound  and  execute  the  law  as  we  find  it,  and  we 
''  think  it  too  firmly  and  clearly  established  to  admit  of 
"  dispute  that  the  Indian  tribes  residing  within  the  ter- 
"  ritorial  limits  of  the  United  States  are  subject  to  their 
"  authority ;  and  where  the  country  occupied  by  them 
"  is  not  within  the  limits  of  one  of  the  United  States, 
"  Congress  may  by  law  punish  any  offence  committed 
"  there,  no  matter  whether  the  offender  be  a  white  man 
"  or  an  Indian. 

Assuming  a  right  over  all  of  her  lands  which  thus 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.       83 

far  had  never  been  denied,  and  which  had  been  acted 
upon  by  all  of  the  thirteen  original  States,  the  General 
Assembly  of  Georgia,  in  17^8,  authorized  a  conditional 
sale  of  the  larger  portion  of  her  territory  lying  between 
the  Chattahoochee  and  the  Mississippi.  Three  com- 
panies were  organized  by  speculators  to  acquire  these 
valuable  lands.  The  ^'South  Carolina  Yazoo  Company" 
agreed  to  pay  sixty  thousand  dollars  for  five  millions 
of  acres,  now  embracing  the  middle  counties  of  Mis- 
sissippi. The  Virginia  Company  agreed  to  pay  ninety- 
three  thousand  dollars  for  seven  millions  of  acres,  em- 
bracing what  are  now  the  northern  counties  of  Missis- 
sippi. The  "  Tennessee  Company,"  for  forty-six  thous- 
and dollars  agreed  to  purchase  three  millions  five  hun- 
dred thousand  acres,  now  lying  in  north  Alabama. 

Steps  were  being  taken  to  occupy  the  several  pur- 
chases, when  a  question  arose  as  to  the  right  of  Georgia 
to  sell  the  lands  claimed  by  Spain,  between  thirty-one 
degrees  and  thirty-two  degrees  twenty-eight  minutes. 
A  still. more  serious  question,  and  one  to  which  atten- 
tion has  already  been  called,  arose,  as  to  the  right  of 
Georgia  to  dispose  of  the  fee  simple  of  lands  occupied 
still  by  Indian  tribes,  with  whom  the  Federal  Govern- 
ment had  treaties,  and  who  had  never  granted  to  the 
whites  the  lands  which  the  State  was  now  claiming  her 
right  and  power  to  convey  to  speculating  companies. 
The  Union  had  just  been  formed,  and  President  Wash- 
ington was  unwilling  that  anything  should  be  done  to 
embroil  the  infant  republic  with  a  foreign  power.  He 
was  also  fearfiil  of  the  effect  upon  the  Union  of  a  gen- 
eral Indian  war.  But  the  chief  motive  for  his  opposi- 
tion to  the  Yazoo  sale  may  be  found  in  the  jealousy 
which  he  entertained  for  the  power  of  the  Federal 


84       THE  CEADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

Government  as  against  the  claims  of  a  State.  He  had 
seen  during  the  continuance  of  the  preceding  weak 
Government,  that  under  the  articles  of  confederation 
the  United  States  had  the  right  to  make  treaties  with 
the  Indian  tribes  (or  nations  as  they  were  improperly 
styled)  not  residing  within  a  State,  and  he  either  failed 
to  observe  that  that  clause  was  excluded  from  the  new 
Federal  Constitution,  or  construed  its  absence  as  mean- 
ing that  the  new  Government  were  to  make  treaties 
with  and  have  exclusive  charge  of  Indian  tribes  both 
outside  as  well  as  within  a  State.  He  still  believed 
that  the  old  practice  of  treating  with  the  tribes  as 
though  they  were  independent  sovereigns  should  be 
continued  by  the  general  Government,  and  that  the 
States  being  precluded  from  making  treaties,  could  not 
properly  deal  with  the  Indian  people,  and  could  not 
legally  alienate  the  lands  they  occupied.  The  question 
which  puzzled  Washington  was  that  which  puzzled  the 
Government  for  many  years  after  his  day,  and  which 
will  be  practically  solved  at  last  only  by  the  subjection 
of  the  Indian  to  the  laws  which  rule  every  other  citizen 
of  the  Republic,  of  whatever  color  or  race. 

The  President  issued  a  proclamation  against  the 
attempt  of  the  companies  to  occupy  the  lands,  and  as 
they  all  failed  to  pay  the  purchase  money  within  the 
time  stipulated,  the  State  rescinded  the  sale. 

In  December,  1794,  the  Legislature  of  Georgia,  by 
a  majority,  passed  a  new  bill  contracting  for  a  sale  of 
the  Yazoo  territory.  This  bill  was  vetoed  by  Gov- 
ernor Mathews  because  of  the  inadequacy  of  the  con- 
sideration offered,  and  on  the  ground  that  it  would 
create  a  monopoly.  A  few  days  subsequently,  Gov- 
^sjiox  Mathews  gave  way  to  the  importunities  of  the 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.       85 

Assembly  and  signed  another  bill  in  January,  1795, 
which  was  designed  to  accomplish  the  purpose  of  the 
first,  but  which  was  more  guarded  in  some  of  its  expres- 
sions. This  "  Yazoo  Act  "  set  out  that  the  Articles  of 
the  Confederation  had  stipulated  that  each  State  was  to 
retain  her  territory :  that  by  the  treaty  with  Great 
Britain,  the  boundary  of  Georgia  was  confirmed  as 
being  the  same  claimed  by  her  repeatedly  and  recog- 
nized by  the  convention  between  South  CaroHna  and 
Georgia,  held  at  Beaufort,  in  1787  :  that  the  State  had 
the  right  of  pre-emption  over  all  the  lands  within  her 
borders  occupied  by  Indian  tribes:  that  the  treaty 
claimed  to  have  been  made  at  New  York,  between 
McGiUivray  and  the  Federal  Government,  had  never 
been  recognized  by  Georgia:  that  the  confederation 
had  no  right  to  make  that  treaty  with  Indians,  resident 
within  a  State:  that  President  Washington  had  no 
right  to  agree  with  McGiUivray  and  his  chiefs,  and  to 
guarantee  all  the  territory  west  of  the  Oconee,  to  the 
Creeks :  and  that  the  State  had  the  right  to  convey  fee 
simple  titles  to  all  of  her  territory,  whether  to  individ- 
uals or  to  companies. 

The  importance  of  these  positions  taken  by  Georgia, 
will  appear  hereafter.  The  claim  thus  set  forth  by  her 
in  the  preamble  to  the  Yazoo  Act,  has  been  recognized 
as  correct  by  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  Uniied  States 
in  various  decisions,  but  at  that  day  it  was  denied 
strenuously  by  President  Washington  and  the  Federal 
party.  We  will  see  how  it  became  the  occasion  for  pro- 
longed hostility  between  the  Gulf  States  and  the  Fed- 
eral Government,  and  for  the  development  of  that 
responsive  spirit  of  jealousy  on  the  part  of  the  State 
against  the  unjust  pretensions  of  the  Union,  which  edu- 


86       THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEBERACY. 

cated  the  people  of  this  section,  from  the  earliest  day, 
in  the  doctrines  of  State  rights,  nullification,  and  finally 
secession,  as  the  only  remedy  against  Federal  usurpa- 
tion. 

Four  Yazoo  companies  were  formed  under  tbis  Act, 
and  for  the  sum  of  five  hundred  thousand  dollars, 
twenty-one  millions  and  five  hundred  thousand  acres  of 
land  were  conveyed.  The  companies  paid  promptly 
into  the  State  treasury  one-fifth  of  the  purchase  money 
and  obtained  titles  from  the  Governor.  They  hastened 
at  once  to  re-sell  the  lands  to  those  who  might,  in  case 
of  a  repeal  by  the  State,  set  up  a  title  as  innocent  pur- 
chasers without  notice.  As  soon  as  this  sale  was  con- 
summated. President  Washington  laid  a  copy  of  the 
Yazoo  Acts  before  Congress,  saying — "These  Acts 
"  embrace  an  object  of  great  magnitude,  and  their  con- 
"  sequences  may  deeply  affect  the  peace  and  welfare  of 
*'  the  United  States."  Congress  instructed  the  Attor- 
ney General  to  investigate  the  title  of  Georgia  to  the 
lands  in  question. 

Before,  however,  any  action  could  be  taken  by  the 
Federal  Government,  the  people  of  Georgia  themselves 
effectually  disposed  of  these  Yazoo  Acts.  While  they 
acknowledged  the  right  of  the  State  to  the  fee  simple 
of  the  lands  involved,  they  repudiated  the  sale  so  far 
as  lay  in  their  power,  as  having  been  secured  through 
bribery  and  corruption. 

The  opponents  of  the  Act  denied  the  power  of  the 
Legislature  to  sell,  and  denounced  the  scheme  as  trans- 
ferring the  richest  part  of  the  territory  of  Georgia  with 
all  the  inchoate  rights  of  the  settlers  to  the  tender 
mercies  of  a  speculative  corporation.  They  contended 
with  great  reason,  that  the   members  had  not  been 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.       87 

elected  with  a  view  to  such  a  proposition,  and  that  the 
people  should  be  consulted  at  a  new  election  before  pas- 
ing  upon  such  a  momentous  subject.  So  deep  was  the 
popular  indignation  that  several  of  those  who  voted  for 
the  Act  were  actually  slain  upon  their  return  home: 
some  had  their  dweUings  burned:  others  fled  the  State: 
and  one  was  even  pursued  and  killed  in  Virginia.  All 
of  them  were  repudiated  and  spurned  by  the  people 
Their  votes  were  held  as  affixing  a  mark  of  disgrace  to 
themselves  and  entailing  infe,my  for  years  upon  their 
children. 

There  were  men  of  virtue  and  high  position  who 
advocated  and  supported  the  Yazoo  Acts.  They  held 
that  the  sale  of  the  western  territory  to  different  com- 
panies would  be  productive  of  a  more  rapid  settlement 
of  the  lands,  the  erection  of  new  States,  an^  the  speedy 
building  up  of  an  interest  quite  equal  to  the  task  of 
compassing  the  extinguishment  of  the  whole  Indian 
tribe.  There  can  be  no  question  that  these  men  were 
deceived  as  to  the  character  of  those  who  managed  the 
business  of  securing  the  sale,  however  honest  they  may 
have  been  as  to  the  merits  of  the  question  itself 
William  Few,  then  a  Senator  in  Congress  from  Geor- 
gia, bears  this  testimony  :  "  In  fact  Georgia  was  inva- 
"•  ded  and  overrun  by  a  horde  of  speculators  and  other 
"  adventurers,  just  after  the  close  of  the  Revolution,  and 
"  was  as  completely  changed  for  a  time  as  to  character, 
"  sentiment,  or  conduct,  as  ever  was  England  after  the 
*'  Saxon  or  Norman  invasion."  He  declared  further, 
that  "  it  is  hardly  susceptible  of  proof,  that  any  per- 
^'  sons,  born  or  bred  in  Georgia,  were  any  more  than 
"  dupes  in  the  fraud."  Mr.  Few  was  doubtless  correct. 
We   have   seen   in  another  day,  and  after  a  fiercer 


B^  Tttfi  ORADLfi  OP  l^flE  OONPEDERACY. 

revolution,  an  invasion  of  similar  adventurers,  and  the 
perpetration  of  similar  frauds,  without  the  connivance 
or  consent  of  the  native  population.  There  is  no  rea- 
son to  believe  that  Governor  Mathews  was  corrupted. 
But  so  bitter  was  the  feeling  against  all  who  aided 
directly  or  indirectly  in  the  passage  of  the  obnoxious 
Acts,  that  to  this  day  no  county  of  Georgia  has  been 
named  for  one  of  its  first  and  most  gallant  governors ; 
and  never  since  that  day  has  a  member  of  a  Georgia 
Legislature,  elected  by  the  Anglo-Saxon  population, 
dared  to  exercise  his  office  corruptly.  One  of  the  first 
lessons  of  the  century  in  the  Gulf  country  taught 
honesty  in  political  life.  It  was  remembered  for  gene- 
rations. 

The  people  of  Georgia  made  the  expressed  opinion 
of  a  politician  with  reference  to  the  validity  of  the 
Yazoo  sale  a  test  of  his  fitness  for  office.  If  he  held 
that  the  Legislature  had  the  right  to  sell  the  territory, 
and  that  the  purchasers  acquired  title  by  the  sale,  he 
sank  to  an  obscurity  from  which  he  could  never  rise. 
James  Jackson,  a  young  man  of  great  tact  and  abihty 
and  boldness,  who  had  served  with  distinction  in  the 
Revolution,  and  who  was  elevated  to  the  gubernatorial 
chair  at  an  unusually  early  age,  was  now  a  member  of 
Congress.  He  was  of  ardent  temperament,  the  soul  of 
honor,  and  chivalrous  in  the  highest  degree.  Of  com- 
manding and  graceful  figure,  eloquent  in  expression,  a 
determined  enemy  and  an  impulsive  friend,  positive  in 
thought  and  act,  and  holding  in  utter  contempt  every 
species  of  deceit  and  treachery,  he  wielded  a  wide  in- 
fluence throughout  South  Georgia.  Resigning  his  seat 
in  Congress,  this  young  "  Bayard,"  without  fear  and 
without  reproach,  announced  himself  as  a  candidate  for 


THE  CUABLE  OF  THE  CONFEDEttACY.  89 

the  state  Legislature,  declared  that  "  Repeal  of  the 
Yazoo  sale  "  should  be  the  rallying  cry  of  the  honest 
sons  of  Georgia,  and  proceeded  to  visit  every  section  of 
the  State,  addressing  popular  assemblies  and  calling  for 
an  uprising  of  the  people  to  rebuke  the  first  corrupt 
scheme  that  ever  passed  a  Georgia  Legislature.  He 
inspired  the  multitudes  with  his  own  enthusiasm,  was 
elected  to  a  seat  in  the  Assembly,  proposed  and  secured 
a  repeal  of  the  Yazoo  sale,  and  then  at  the  head  of  a 
procession  of  members  of  both  houses,  bore  the  manu- 
script of  the  repealed  Act  to  the  public  square,  and 
with  a  sun  glass  burned  it  to  ashes.  Henceforth  the 
rising  young  men  of  Georgia  knew  that  to  preserve 
popular  favor  they  must  keep  the  robes  of  office  un- 
suUied. 

The  "Yazoo  Fraud"  question  did  not  make  its 
appearance  again  until  after  the  State  of  Georgia,  in 
1802,  had  ceded  to  the  United  States  all  of  her  lands 
lying  between  the  Chattahoochee  and  the  Mississippi. 

In  the  "Articles  of  Agreement  and  Cession" 
between  Georgia  and  the  United  States,  was  a  proviso 
that  the  latter  may  dispose  of  or  appropriate  a  portion 
of  the  lands  covered  by  the  Yazoo  grants,  not  exceed- 
ing five  millions  of  acres,  or  any  part  thereof,  for  the 
purpose  of  satisfying,  quieting,  or  compensating  any 
claims  other  than  those  recognized  in  the  Articles 
of  Agreement,  which  may  be  made  to  the  said  lands. 
It  was  under  this  provision  that  the  New  England  and 
Mississippi  Land  Company,  who,  in  the  meantime,  had 
purchased  the  title  of  the  original  grantees  of  a  corrupt 
Legislature,  petitioned  Congress  to  satisfy  their  claim 
by  a  fair  purchase  or  commutation.  In  the  session  of 
1802-3  this  subject  was  first  brought  to  the  attention 


90       THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

of  Congress.  Mr.  Madison  and  Mr.  Gallatin,  members 
of  the  Cabinet,  and  Mr.  Levi  Lincoln,  were  appointed 
commissioners  to  investigate  the  subject.  They  made 
an  elaborate  report  and  concluded  with  a  proposition 
that  so  much  of  the  five  millions  of  acres  as  shall 
remain  after  having  satisfied  the  claims  of  settlers  and 
others,  not  recognized  by  the  agreement  with  Georgia, 
which  shall  be  confirmed  by  the  United  States,  be 
appropriated  for  the  purpose  of  satisfying  and  quieting 
the  claims  of  the  persons  who  derive  their  titles  from 
the  Act  of  the  State  of  Georgia,  passed  Jan.  7,  1795. 
The  head  of  this  New  England  and  Mississippi  Land 
Company  was  Gideon  Granger,  then  Postmaster  Gen- 
eral. He  was  the  agent  of  the  Company  to  prosecute 
the  claim  before  Congress.  Referring  to  Mr.  Granger 
and  his  application  to  Congress  in  this  case,  Mr.  John 
Randolph  said  :  "  The  first  year  I  had  the  honor  of  a 
"seat  in  this  House,  an  act  was  passed  somewhat  of  a 
"  similar  nature  to  the  one  now  proposed.  I  allude  to 
"  the  case  of  the  Connecticut  Reserve,  by  which  the 
"  nation  was  swindled  out  of  three  or  four  millions  of 
"  acres,  which,  like  other  bad  titles,  had  fallen  into  the 
"  hands  of  innocent  purchasers.  When  I  advert  to 
"  the  applicants  by  whom  we  were  then  beset,  I  find 
"among  them  one  of  the  persons  who  styled  them- 
"  selves  the  agents  of  the  New  England  and  Mississippi 
"  Land  Company,  who  seems  to  have  an  unfortunate 
"  knack  of  buying  bad  titles.  His  gigantic  grasp  em- 
"  braces  with  one  hand  the  shores  of  Lake  Erie,  and 
"  with  the  other  stretches  to  the  Bay  of  Mobile.  ^  * 
"  Mr.  Speaker,  when  I  see  the  agency  which  is  em- 
"  ployed  on  this  occasion,  I  must  own  that  it  fills  me 
''  with  apprehension  and  alarm.     The  same  agent  is  at 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.       91 

"  the  head  of  an  Executive  Department  of  our  Gov- 
'*  ernment,  and  inferior  to  none  in  the  influence  at^ 
"  tached  to  it.  *  *  This  officer  presents  himself  at 
"  your  bar  at  once  a  party  and  an  advocate.  Sir,  when 
"  I  see  such  a  tremendous  influence  brought  to  bear 
"  upon  us  I  do  confess  it  strikes  me  with  consternation 
"  and  despair.  Are  the  heads  of  Executive  Depart- 
"  ments,  with  the  influence  and  patronage  attached  to 
''  them,  to  extort  from  us  now,  what  we  refused  at  the 
"  last  session  of  Congress." 

Mr.  Granger  and  his  friends  professed  great  indigna- 
tion at  the  opposition  of  Randolph,  and  threatened  to 
canvass  New  England  in  the  interest  of  the  company 
who  now  claimed  to  hold  as  innocent  purchasers  under 
the  rescinded  Yazoo  law.  Prominent  among  those 
who  aided  and  sympathized  with  the  company  was 
Aaron  Burr,  who  doubtless  was  in  league  with  the 
claimants  to  add  their  portion  of  the  Yazoo  territory 
to  the  country  which  he  hoped  to  erect  into  an  inde- 
pendent Southwestern  Republic. 

In  order  to  estabhsh  their  claim,  a  case  was  made  by 
the  claimants  for  adjudication  by  the  Supreme  Court 
of  the  United  States.  James  Gunn  and  others,  who 
held  one  of  the  grants,  sold  certain  lands  to  John 
Peck,  who  in  turn  sold  to  Robert  Fletcher.  Peck 
made  a  deed  to  Fletcher,  and  Fletcher  sued  Peck  for 
breach  of  covenant,  in  that  the  State  of  Georgia  at  the 
time  of  passing  the  Yazoo  Acts,  had  no  good  right  to 
sell  and  dispose  of  the  lands  in  question.  One  of  the 
covenants  of  the  deed  from  Peck  was  that  aU  the  title 
which  Georgia  ever  had  in  the  lands  had  been  legally 
conveyed,  and  another  was  that  the  title  to  the  lands 
bad  in  no  way  been  impaired  by  vktue  of  the  subse- 


92       THE  CRADLE  OP  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

quent  rescision  of  the  Acts  by  a  new  Georgia  Legis- 
lature. 

Thus  the  questions  came  up  which  were  to  have  so 
marked  an  influence  upon  Southwestern  pohtics.  (1). 
As  to  the  right  of  a  State  to  the  fee  simple  of  lands 
occupied  by  Indian  tribes.  (2)  As  to  the  right  of  a 
State  to  interfere  with  vested  rights  by  rescision  of  a 
contract. 

The  Supreme  Court  refiised  to  say  that  bribery  of 
a  General  Assembly  would  invalidate  an  Act.  "  It 
"  would  be  indecent  in  the  extreme,"  said  the  Chief 
Justice,  "upon  a  private  contract  between  two  indi- 
"  viduals,  to  enter  into  an  enquiry  respecting  the  corrup- 
"  tion  of  a  sovereign  power  of  a  State.  If  the  title  be 
"  plainly  deduced  from  a  Legislative  Act,  which  the 
"  Legislature  might  constitutionally  pass,  if  the  act  be 
"  clothed  with  all  the  requisite  favors  of  a  law,  a  court, 
"  sitting  as  a  court  of  law,  cannot  sustain  a  suit  brought 
"  by  one  individual  against  another,  founded  on  the 
"  allegations  that  the  Act  is  a  nuUity,  in  consequence 
"  of  the  impure  motives  which  influenced  certain  mem- 
"  bers  of  the  Legislature  which  passed  the  law." 

The  Supreme  Court  decided  that  the  constitutional 
inhibition  forbidding  a  State  to  enact  a  law  invalidat- 
ing a  contract,  appHed  to  this  case.  It  was  the  unani- 
mous opinion  of  the  Court  that  the  repealing  Act  did 
not  deprive  purchasers  from  the  Yazoo  grantees  of 
rights  under  the  Acts  of  1795,  and  that  the  lands  in 
controversy  having  passed  into  the  hands  of  a  pur- 
chaser for  valuable  consideration  and  without  notice, 
the  rescisive  Act  of  the  State  of  Georgia  was  inope- 
rative, nuU  and  void  as  to  such  innocent  purchaser. 

To  sustain  the  rights  of  the  purchasers  in  this  case, 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.       ftS 

it  was  necessarily  held  also  that  Georgia  had  a  right  to 
sell  the  lands  in  question,  although  then  occupied  and 
claimed  by  Indian  tribes.  It  was  found  by  the  Court 
that  the  grant  of  Carolina  by  Charles  I,  to  the  Earl  of 
Clarendon  and  others,  comprehended  the  whole  country 
from  thirty-six  degrees  thirty  minutes,  to  twenty- nine 
degrees,  and  from  the  Atlantic  to  the"  South  Sea.  Seven 
oi  the  eight  proprietors  of  the  colonies  surrendered  to 
George  I,  in  1729,  who  appointed  a  governor  for  South 
Carolina. 

In  1732,  George  I  granted  to  the  Lord  Viscount 
Percival  and  others,  seven-eighths  of  the  territory  be- 
tween the  Savannah  and  the  Altamaha,  and  extending 
west  to  the  South  Sea,  the  remaining  eighth  part, 
which  was  still  the  property  of  the  heir  of  Lord  Carte- 
ret, one  of  the  original  grantees  of  Carolina,  was  after- 
wards conveyed  to  them.  This  territory  was  constitu- 
ted a  colony,  and  called  Georgia.  The  Governor  of 
South  Carolina  continued  to  exercise  jurisdiction  south 
of  Georgia.  In  1752,  the  grantees  surrendered  to  the 
crown,  and  in  1754  a  governor  was  appointed  by  the 
crown,  with  a  commission  definins;  the  boundaries  of  the 
colony.  In  1765,  a  commission  was  issued  to  the 
Go  vomer  describing  the  boundaries  of  Georgia,  as 
extending  westward  to  the  Mississippi.  The  lands 
involved  in  the  case  of  Fletcher  vs.  Peck,  lay  within 
the  boundary  defined  by  the  commission  of  1763.  It 
was  thus  held  to  be  the  exclusive  property  of  Georgia, 
inherited  and  aequired  by  the  right  of  conquest. 
Chief  Justice  Marshall,  in  passing  upon  this  branch  of 
the  case,  said:  "The  question  whether  the  vacant 
"  land  within  the  United  States  became  joint  property, 
"  or  belonged  to  the  separate  States,  was  a  momentous 


94       THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

"  question,  which  at  one  time  threatened  to  shake  the 
"  American  confederacy  to  its  foundation.  This  im- 
"  portant  and  dangerous  contest  has  been  compromised, 
"  and  this  compromise  is  not  now  to  be  disturbed."  In 
conclusion  of  his  opinion,  he  says :  "  The  majority  of 
"  the  Court  are  of  opinion  that  the  nature  of  the 
"  Indian  titl^,  which  is  certainly  to  be  respected  by  all 
^'  Courts  until  it  be  legitimately  extinguished,  is  not 
"  such  as  to  be  absolutely  repugnant  to  seizin  in  fee  on 
"  the  part  of  the  State." 

Although  the  Supreme  Court  was  thus  cautious  in 
its  language  in  1810,  when  this  decision  was  ren- 
dered, we  find  that  Chief  Justice  Tracy  and  the  Court 
had  become  positive  in  1845.  There  was  at  that  day 
no  longer  a  doubt  as  to  the  seizin  in  fee  by  the  State  of 
all  lands  within  her  limits  occupied  by  Indian  tribes. 
This  right  to  the  soil  was  recognized  by  Kent  in  his 
Commentaries,  as  early  as  1823,  as  will  be  seen  by 
reference  to  the  paragraph  from  his  writings  quoted  at 
the  beginning  of  this  chapter. 

The  importance  of  this  decision  of  Fletcher  vs. 
Feck,  was  at  once  understood  by  the  States  It  was 
the  first  adjudication  which  announced  that  the  control 
by  a  State  of  its  own  territory  is  not  unlimited,  but 
that  the  General  Government  has  the  right  in  certain 
cases  to  restrain  the  State  from  annulling  its  own 
patent.  The  Court  declared  that  when  a  law  is  in  its 
nature  a  contract,  a  repeal  of  the  law  cannot  divest  the 
rights  acquired  under  it  by  innocent  purchasers  without 
notice,  and  that  their  title  shall  not  be  impaired.  The 
Court  held  that  a  grant  by  a  State  is  a  contract  within 
the  meaning  of  the  Constitution,  and  a  party  is  always 
estopped  by  his  own  grant.    A  party  cannot  pronounce 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.       95 

his  own  deed  invalid  whatever  cause  may  be  assigned 
for  its  invalidity,  even  though  that  party  be  the  Legis- 
lature of  a  State.  A  grant  amounts  to  an  extinguish- 
ment of  the  right  of  the  grantor,  and  implies  a  con- 
tract not  to  reassert  that  right.  A  grant  from  a  State 
is  as  much  protected  by  the  operation  of  the  provision 
of  the  Constitution  as  a  grant  from  one  individual  to 
another;  and  the  State  is  as  much  inhibited  from  im- 
pairing its  own  contracts,  or  a  contract  to  which  it  is  a 
party,  as  it  is  from  impairing  the  obhgation  of  contracts 
between  individuals. 

Such  was  the  decision  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the 
United  States.  No  matter  that  the  voice  and  consent 
of  Georgia  had  been  obtained  through  misrepresenta- 
tion on  the  part  of  her  Greneral  Assembly.  No  matter 
that  bribery  and  corruption  had  extorted  a  shameful 
sacrifice  of  most  valuable  property  from  the  accidental 
representatives  of  the  people  No  matter,  said  the 
United  States  Judiciary  to  the  innocent  people,  whether 
the  grant  was  made  rightfully  or  wrongfully,  "  you  are 
'^  not  to  be  the  judge  of  that  question ;  you  are 
"  estopped  from  questioning  anything  but  the  existence 
"  of  your  patent."  No  wonder  the  people  of  Georgia 
were  indignant  at  such  a  decision,  so  unexpected,  so 
novel,  so  antagonistic  to  the  theory  of  State  sovereignty 
in  which  they  had  been  educated. 

The  opponents  of  the  decision  contended  that  the 
inhibitory  clause  of  the  Federal  Constitution  simply 
applied  to  cases  of  contract  between  man  and  man,  and 
not  to  cases  in  which  a  sovereign  State  directly  or  in- 
directly was  a  party.  It  appeared  to  them  monstrous 
that  a  State  should  be  bound  by  the  unauthorized  acts 
of  her  agents,  simply  because  a  citizen  had  acquired  a 


96       THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

vested  right  thereby.  Could  it  not  be  left  safely  with 
the  State  to  make  compensation  for  injury  to  innocent 
parties  in  such  case  ?  Before  the  States  would  ratify 
the  Constitution  they  insisted  upon  an  amendment  for- 
bidding the  judicial  power  of  the  United  States  to  any 
suit  in  law  or  equity  by  the  citizen  of  another  State  or 
of  a  foreign  country  against  any  of  the  States.  If  the 
State  could  not  be  compelled  to  abide  by  a  contract 
made  with  a  citizen  of  another  State  or  a  foreigner, 
how  could  she  be  compelled  by  the  United  States  to 
abide  by  a  contract  with  one  of  her  own  citizens  ?  The 
people  of  the  State  were  filled  with  indignation  against 
the  alleged  encroachment  by  the  General  Government 
against  their  rights. 

The  Federal  party  which  had  adhered  to  the  admin- 
istration of  Washington,  from  this  day  began  to  fall 
away  more  rapidly  than  ever.  The  Republican  party 
of  Georgia  grew  with  wonderful  rapidity,  and  soon 
there  appeared  upon  the  stage  such  men  as  John 
Forsyth,  William  H.  Crawford,  Thomas  W.  Cobb, 
Duncan  G.  Campbell,  Augustus  Clayton,  Eli  S.  Shor- 
ter, John  M.  Dooly,  Freeman  Walker,  John  M.  Ber- 
rien, Stephen  W.  Harris,  and  Geo.  M.  Troup.  Into 
every  poUtical  campaign  entered  the  principles  of  Gov- 
ernment involved  in  the  Yazoo  transaction.  The 
people  were  on  the  side  of  Georgia,  and  this  splendid 
array  of  youthful  intellect  was  on  the  side  of  the 
people.  The  current  all  set  towards  the  sovereignty  of 
the  State ;  there  was  barely  a  perceptible  eddy  in  the 
other  direction. 


CHAPTER    V, 


Relation  of  the  Union  to  the  Indian  Tribes — Relation  of  the 
Mate  to_tJie..Txibes  WiiIim.J[J&^L^  — The  Georgia 
Act  of  Cession — ^on  Observance  of  the  Contract  on 
the  Part  of  the  United  States — The  Treaty  Making  and 
Commerce  Regulating  Power — Conflicting  Views  as  to 
Indian  Rights — Practice  of  the  Northern  and  Eastern 
States — The  Neto  Theory  of  Equality  of  Races ^  &c.^  <&c. 


••  But  the  project  of  ultimately  organizing  them  [the  Indian  tribes] 
into  States,  within  the  limits  of  those  States  which  had  not  ceded  or 
sliould  not  cede  to  the  United  States  tlie  jurisdiction  over  the  Indian 
territory  within  their  bounds,  could  not  possibly  have  entered  into 
the  contemplation  of  our  Government.  Nothing  but  express  authority 
from  the  States  could  have  justified  such  a  policy,  pursued  with  such 
a  view." 

WiiiijiAM  Johnson,  Associate  Justice  Supreme  Court  U,  S. 

"  The  main  point  Involved,  was  not  the  rights  of  the  Creeks,  but 
the  corner-stone  of  the  legal  foundation  of  the  whole  Union.  It  is 
true  that  there  was  no  danger  that  this  corner-stone  would  be  broken 
and  shattered  on  the  Instant.  But  the  demand  of  principiis  obsia! 
was  again  urged  upon  the  Federal  Government,  and  in  a  more  press- 
ing way  than  ever  before." 

Von  HOIiST'S  CONSTITUTIONAIi  HiSTOBY,  p.  449. 

A  majority  of  the  States  represented  in  the  con- 
vention which  framed  the  Constitution,  either  ceded  to 
the  United  States  the  soil  and  jurisdiction  of  their 
western  lands,  or  claimed  it  to  be  remaining  within 
themselves.  Congress  assented  as  to  ceded,  and  the 
States  as  to  the  unceded  territory,  their  right  to  the 
soil  absolutely  and  the  dominion  in  full  sovereignty, 
within  their  respective  limits,  subject  only  to  the  Indian 
occupancy,  not  as  foreign  States  or  nations^  but  as 
dependent  on,  and  appendant  to  the  State    govern- 


98       THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

ments.  Before  the  convention  took  action,  Congress 
erected  a  government  in  the  Northwestern  territory 
containing  numerous  and  powerful  tribes.  It  was 
ordained  that  the  territorial  laws  should  extend  over 
the  whole  district,  and  divisions  were  created  for  the 
execution  of  the  civil  and  commercial  law.  Although 
the  Indians  were,  for  a  long  time,  and  generally,  per- 
mitted to  regulate  their  internal  affairs  in  their  own 
way,  it  was  not  by  any  inherent  right  acknowledged 
by  Congress  or  reserved  by  treaty,  but  because  Con- 
gress did  not  see  proper  to  exercise  its  full  powers 
of  sovereignty.  This  complete  sovereignty  was  de- 
clared and  asserted  in  all  the  regulations  of  Congress, 
fi'om  1775  to  1788,  in  the  Articles  of  Confederation, 
in  the  Ordinance  of  1787,  in  the  Proclamation  of 
1788,  and  in  the  case  of  the  Southwestern  Indians  in 
the  Treaty  of  Hopewell  in  1785. 

In  the  Act  of  Cession  made  by  Georgia  to  the 
United  States  in  1802  of  all  lands  claimed  by  her  west 
of  the  line  designated,  one  of  the  cnditions  was:  "  that 
"  the  United  States  should,  at  theu'  own  expense, 
"  extinguish  for  the  use  of  Georgia,  as  early  as  the 
"  same  can  be  peaceably  obtained,  on  reasonable  terms, 
"  the  Indian  title  to  lands  within  the  State  of  Georgia." 

Finding  that  the  Federal  Government  delayed  to 
carry  out  their  part  of  the  stipulation,  and  were  adopt- 
ing measures  looking  to  the  perpetual  occupation  of 
these  lands  by  the  Indians,  such  as  the  erection  of 
school  houses  and  churches,  the  parcelling  out  of  farms 
among  them,  and  their  education  in  the  arts  of  civil- 
ized life,  the  State  of  Georgia  resolved  to  extend  her 
laws  over  the  entire  Indian  territory  within  her  borders. 
She  claimed,  as  has  akeady  been  seen,  a  fee  simple 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.       99 

title  to  these  Indian  lands.  She  claimed  and  exercised 
the  right  to  sell  these  lands  to  the  Yazoo  speculators; 
and  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States,  in  1810, 
had  decided  that  she  had  a  right  to  make  the  sale,  and 
should  not  annul  it.  There  could  be  no  higher  recog- 
nition of  her  right  to  sovereignty,  over  the  vast  terri- 
tory covered  by  the  Yazoo  Acts,  than  the  opinion  of 
Chief  Justice  Marshall  in  the  case  of  Fletcher  vs. 
Peck. 

If  Georgia,  as  was  admitted  by  a  majority  of  the 
court  in  that  cause,  had  a  fee  simple  title  to  the  soil,  it 
was  a  worthless  title  so  long  as  the  Federal  Government 
recognized  a  right  on  the  part  of  the  Indian  tribes  to 
occupy  the  soil  at  will.  The  analogy  of  an  estate  in 
remainder  or  reversion  could  not  apply,  since  no  time 
or  circumstance  was  fixed  for  the  reversion  to  happen. 
There  could  not  be  two  concurrent  sovereignties.  The 
State  repeatedly  remonstrated  to  the  President,  and 
called  upon  the  Federal  Government  to  take  the  neces- 
sary steps  to  fulfil  the  stipulations  as  to  removal. 
She  complained  that  while  the  Indian  title  to  immense 
tracts  of  country  had  been  extinguished  elsewhere,  but 
little  if  any  effort  had  been  made  in  that  direction 
within  the  limits  of  Georgia.  This  delay  was  attrib- 
uted either  to  a  want  of  attention  on  the  part  of  the 
United  States,  or  to  the  effect  of  its  new  humanitarian 
policy  towards  the  red  man.  In  one  or  more  of  the 
treaties,  titles  in  fee  simple  to  certain  reservations  of 
land  jvere  given  by  the  United  States  to  individual 
Indians.  This  was  complained  of  by  Georgia  as  a 
direct  infi^action  of  the  condition  of  the  cession. 

Georgia  complained  also  that  the  pohcy  of  the  Gov- 
ernment in  advancing  the  cause  of  civilization  among 


*100  THE  CEADLE  OF  THE  COl^FEDERACY. 

the  tribes,  and  inducing  them  to  assume  the  forms  of  a 
regular  government  and  of  civilized  life,  was  calculated 
to  promote  an  attachment  to  the  soil  they  inhabited, 
and  to  render  the  purchase  of  their  title  more  difficult, 
if  not  impracticable.  Mr.  Jefferson  in  1809,  in  a  letter 
to  the  Cherokees,  recommended  them  to  adopt  a  regu- 
lar government,  that  crimes  might  be  punished  and 
property  protected.  He  pointed  out  a  mode  by  which 
a  council  should  be  chosen,  who  should  have  power  to 
enact  law ;  and  he  also  recommended  the  appointment 
of  judicial  and  executive  officers,  through  whom  the  law 
should  be  enforced.  In  the  treaty  of  1817,  the  Cher- 
okees were  encouraged  to  adopt  a  regular  form  of  gov- 
ernment, and  they  thereupon  adopted  a  government 
modelled  on  that  of  a  State.  Subsequently  a  law  was 
passed  by  Congress  making  an  annual  appropriation  of 
$10,000,  as  a  school  fund  for  the  education  of  Indian 
youths.  'Missionary  labors  among  the  Indians  were 
also  sanctioned  by  the  Government,  by  granting  per- 
mission to  reside  in  the  Indian  country  to  those  who 
were  disposed  to  engage  in  such  work.  The  means 
thus  adopted  by  the  United  States  to  reclaim  the 
savage  from  his  erratic  life,  and  induce  him  to  assume 
the  forms  of  civilization,  no  doubt  tended  to  increase 
his  attachment  to  the  soil,  and  the  difficulty  of  pur- 
chasing it  as  the  United  States  had  agreed  with  Georgia 
to  do.  It  was  not  contemplated  by  the  State  at  the 
time  of  the  cession  that  any  obstructions  to  the  fulfil- 
ment of  the  contract  should  be  allowed,  much  less 
sanctioned,  by  the  United  States. 

Georgia  denied  that  the  power  of  the  United  States 
to  make  treaties  authorized  the  Government  to  treat 
with  Indian  tribes  as  though  they  were  sovereign  and 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  OONFEDERACY.      101 

independent  nations.  The  Indian  tribe  was  in  no  sense 
a  naton.  It  did  not  own  the  fee  simple  of  the  lands  it 
hunted  over.  It  occupied,  said  Chief  Justice  Marshall, 
towards  the  State  in  whose  limits  it  was  included,  or  to 
the  United  States,  if  it  lay  without  the  borders  of  a 
State,  the  relation  of  a  ward  to  a  guardian.  Assuredly 
a  guardian  could  not  treat  with  his  ward.  In  the 
treaty  of  Hopewell,  March  15,  1875,  just  after  the 
Revolution,  the  Commissioners  of  the  United  States 
expressed  themselves  in  these  terms  :  -^  The  Commis- 
"  sioners  Plenipotentiary  of  the  United  States  give 
"  peace  to  all  the  Cherokees,  and  receive  them  into  the 
"  favor  and  protection  of  the  United  States,  on  the 
"  following  conditions."  This  was  the  language  of 
conquerors  and  sovereigns,  and  not  the  address  of 
equals  to  equals.  Such  an  agreement  was  simply  a 
promise  or  contract,  and  in  no  way  worthy  or  deserving 
of  the  title  of  treaty.  In  designating  the  country  to 
which  the  Cherokees  should  be  confined,  the  Commis- 
sioners used  this  language :  **  The  boundaries  allotted 
"  to  the  Cherokees  for  their  hunting  grounds."  The 
concession  was  all  on  the  side  of  the  United  States. 
No  right  «)f  possession  of  the  soil  in  the  Indian  was 
recognized.  Down  to  that  day  the  tribes  did  not  claim 
to  be  recognized  as  nations,  and  no  nation  on  earth 
had  ever  looked  upon  them  as  sufficiently  sovereign  to 
become  parties  to  what  is  technically  known  as  a  treaty. 
If  they  should  declare  war,  and  issue  letters  of  marque 
or  reprisal,  no  one  would  respect  their  commissions.  In 
the  treaty  of  Hopewell,  the  Cherokees  renounced  every 
attribute  of  sovereignty.  They  received  as  a  boon  the 
territory  allotted  to  them :  the  right  of  punishing 
intruders  into  that  territory  was  conceded  by  the  con- 


102      THE  CEADLE  OP  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

queror,  not  asserted  by  the  tribe,  and  the  sole  and 
exclusive  right  was  claimed  by  the  conqueror  of  regu- 
lating then-  trade  and  managing  all  their  affairs  in  such 
manner  as  the  Government  of  the  United  States  should 
think  proper.  To  leave  no  question  as  to  the  subjec- 
tion of  the  tribes,  the  United  States  in  the  so-called 
treaty  of  Hopewell  provided :  "  For  the  benefit  and 
"  comfort  of  the  Indians,  and  for  the  prevention  of 
"  mjuries  and  aggi'essions  on  the  part  of  the  citizens 
"  or  Indians,  the  United  States,  in  Congress  assembled, 
"  shall  have  the  sole  and  exclusive  right  of  regulating 
"  the  trade  with  the  Indians,  and  managing  all 
"  their  affairs  in  such  manner  as  they  shall  think 
"  proper." 

Georgia  claimed  under  this  Hopewell  treaty  that  the 
United  States  had  plenary  power  to  do  with  the  Indians 
as  they  might  think  proper.  A  similar  and  equal 
power  to  that  which  the  United  States  possessed  over 
Indian  tribes  outside  of  Georgia,  clearly  belonged  to 
the  State  as  regards  those  tribes  within  her  limits.  The 
Federal  Government  had  only  the  power  which  it  in- 
herited from  the  State.  The  treaties  that  followed  that 
of  Hopewell,  namely,  those  of  Holston  and  Tellico^ 
referred  to  and  confirmed  that  of  Hopewell. 

The  use  of  the  word  "treaty,"  as  applied  to  these 
agreements,  contracts  or  stipulations  made  with  Indian 
tribes  is  of  no  significance.  Thus  in  the  second  article 
of  the  Ilolston  treaty,  so-called,  occurs  these  words : 
"That  the  said  Cherokee  nation  will  not  hold  any 
"treaty  with  any  foreign  power,  individual,  State,  or 
"  with  individuals  of  any  State."  The  application  of 
the  word  treaty  to  an  agreement  with  an  individual  is 
evidence  that  it  was  not  used  in  its  strict  technical 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.      103 

sense,  and  was  not  intended  to  mean  a  contract  between 
sovereign  powers.  Georgia  protested  that  these  agree- 
ments with  conquered  and  dependent  Indian  tribes 
were  not  such  treaties  as  were  made  by  the  Constitu- 
tion the  supreme  law  of  the  land,  and  therefore  the 
Federal  Government,  under  color  of  these  so-called 
treaties  had  no  right  to  interfere  with  the  State  of 
Georgia  in  managing  every  foot  of  her  own  soil  and 
every  person  resident  within  her  borders. 

A  memorial  of  the  Georgia  Legislature  in  1819, 
urged  the  President  to  hasten  the  fulfilment  of  the 
agreement  of  1802.  The  Administration  professed 
willingness  to  carry  out  the  stipulation,  but  the  Indians 
refused  to  sell.  A  council  of  Creek  chiefs  at  Tucke- 
bachee  declared.  May  25,  1824,  that  the  lands  still  in 
their  possession  were  only  sufficient  for  the  support  of 
the  tribe.  Said  they  :  "  We  have  guns  and  ropes,  and 
"  if  any  of  our  people  shall  break  these  laws,  those 
''  guns  and  ropes  shall  be  their  end."  On  the  29th  of 
October,  of  the  same  year,  a  council  of  chiefs  met 
again  and  passed  a  resolution  of  the  same  tenor,  and 
committed  it,  "  confiding  in  the  magnanimous  disposi- 
"  tion  of  the  citizens  of  the  United  States  to  render 
"justice  to  the  Indians" — to  a  newspaper  for  publica- 
tion, "  so  that  it  may  be  known  to  the  world."  In 
reply  to  the  Commissioners  of  the  United  States, 
Duncan  G.  Campbell  and  James  Merriwether,  who  con- 
ferred with  them  at  Broken  Arm,  in  the  following 
December,  John  Ross  and  the  Creek  chiefs  used 
decided  language. 

It  was  suggested  to  the  Indian,  by  the  Commis- 
sioners, that  but  two  courses  were  left  him.  He  must 
consent  to  removal  to  hunting  grounds  beyond  the 


l04      THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

Mississippi,  or  he  must  be  incorporated  in  the  State 
government.  To  the  first  of  these  propositions  was 
given  an  emphatic  no.  To  the  second,  it  was  replied 
that  the  happiness  which  the  Indians  once  enjoyed  by 
a  quiet  and  undisturbed  ease,  before  the  face  of  the 
white  man  was  seen  upon  the  continent,  was  afterwards 
poisoned  by  the  bad  fruits  of  the  civilized  tree  which 
he  had  planted  around  them.  Wars  arose,  the  moun- 
tains and  plains  were  covered  with  carnage,  and  the 
Elysian  fields  drenched  with  blood ;  and  many  noble 
tribes,  whose  unfortunate  doom  it  was  to  have  been 
overshadowed  by  the  expanded  branches  of  this  tree, 
drooped,  withered,  and  are  no  more.  The  Indian 
tribes  have  become  extinct  whenever  merged  into 
the  white  population.  Invariably  they  have  fallen 
an  early  and  easy  sacrifice  to  the  ambition,  pride,  and 
avarice  of  the  civilized  man.  Defrauded  out  of  their 
rights ;  treated  as  inferior  beings,  because  of  their  pov- 
erty, their  ignorance  and  their  color,  they  have  been 
thrown  with  the  most  degraded  of  society,  from  whom 
they  imbibed  habits  of  debauchery  and  intemperance, 
with  all  the  vices  that  follow  in  their  train  Their 
lands  have  been  swept  from  under  their  feet  by  the 
ingenuity  and  cunning  of  the  white  man,  and  being 
lefl  destitute  of  a  home,  ignorant  of  the  arts  and 
sciences,  and  possessing  no  experience  in  the  occupa- 
tions of  a  laborious  and  industrious  life,  they  have 
become  vagrants  among  strangers.  By  successive  and 
constant  oppressions,  their  spirits  have  been  depressed 
and  broken,  and  finally,  they  have  been  urged  by 
misery  to  hasten  the  period  of  a  troublesome  existence 
by  resort  to  intemperance  and  every  description  of 
sensuality.     Such  have  been  the  causes  which  fixed 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.      105 

the  doom  of  extinction  to  many  of  the  proudest  Indian 
tribes ;  and  such,  they  protested,  would  be  their  own 
doom  if  incorporated  into  the  family  of  the  white  man. 

If  we  concede  that  it  is  impossible  for  the  Indian  to 
practice  the.  arts  of  peace  and  civilized  life,  these  men 
undoubtedly  spoke  the  language  of  truth.  It  is  amus- 
ing, after  the  lapse  of  half  a  centuryj  to  recur  to  the 
reasons  assigned  by  Governor  Murphy,  of  Alabama, 
for  arriving  at  the  conclusion  of  Ross  and  his  braves. 
In  his  message  to  the  Alabama  Legislature  he  seriously 
said : 

'•  To  civilize  a  people  from  a  rude  and  barbarous 
"  condition,  they  should  be  removed  from  the  inlluence 
"  of  the  vices  and  luxuries  which  prevail  in  civilized 
"  life,  and  subjected  to  that  discipline  and  instruction 
"  by  which  a  change  of  life,  manners  and  mental 
"  improvement  is  gradually  produced.  The  virtues 
*^  must  first  be  cultivated,  and  the  mind  strengthened 
"  against  the  seductions  of  vicious  gratification.  Such 
"  is  the  natural  order  of  things ;  and  experience  only 
"  confirms  what  they  might  justly  predicate  on  a  cor- 
"  rect  knowledge  of  human  nature.  Such  has  been 
"  the  evidence  of  history ;  for  the  provinces  farther 
"  removed  firom  the  vices,  refinements  and  luxuries  of 
"  Rome,  but  subjected  to  its  laws  and  instructed  by  its 
"  arts,  made  the  most  solid,  if  not  the  most  immediate 
"progress  in  civilization.  This  necessary  course  can 
"  not  be  pursued  with  the  Indians  whilst  they  remain 
"  within  our  limits ;  they  have  continued  access  to 
"whatever  tends  to  corrupt  them;  they  have  con. 
"  stant  testimony  that  their  condition  is  regarded  as 
"inferior  to  others,  than  which  nothing  is  more 
"  destructive  to  virtuous  pride  and  generous  emulation ; 


H96      THE  CRADLE  OP  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

"  and  the  abandoned  part  of  our  people  (who  alone  can 
"  mingle  freely  with  the  nation  as  a  body  without 
"  losing  their  standing  in  society),  will  introduce  our 
"  vices  and  prevent  the  introduction  of  our  virtues." 

More  candid  and  much  more  philosophic  was  the  view 
taken  of  this  difficult  problem  by  Governor  Troup,  of 
Georgia.  He  held  that  if  such  a  scheme  as  the  incor- 
poration of  the  Indian  and  his  amalgamation  with  the 
society  of  the  Anglo  Saxons,  was  practicable,  the 
utmost  of  rights  and  privileges  which  public  opin- 
ion would  concede  him  would  be  a  middle  station 
between  the  white  man  and  the  negro  slave ;  that  if  he 
should  survive  this  degradation,  without  the  possibility 
of  attaining  to  the  position  of  the  former,  he  would 
gradually  sink  to  the  condition  of  the  latter,  would 
intermarry  and  amalgamate  with  the  negro,  and  thus 
extinguish  his  proud  race  of  huntsmen  by  transforming 
it  into  a  loathsome  hybrid  without  the  docility  of  the 
mother  nor  the  pride  of  the  father. 

The  State  of  Massachusetts  had  been  earliest  to 
enact  a  law  against  intermarriage  between  the  Indian 
and  the  Anglo-Saxon.  It  was  entitled  "An  Act  for 
the  better  preventing  of  a  spurious  or  mixed  issue." 
Our  forefathers,  understanding  the  inferior  character  of 
the  colored  races,  refused  to  permit  amalgamation,  and 
visited  it  with  the  severest  penalties  of  law.  They  pos- 
sessed a  lofty  pride  of  race  which,  in  a  great  measure, 
has  been  lost  to  their  descendants.  Their  firm  resolve 
to  preserve  the  purity  of  the  race,  and  to  continue  its 
dominion  over  the  land,  was  strengthened  by  the  aspect 
presented  by  Central  and  South  America,  and  the 
Spanish  isles.  There  the  races  had  been  received  into 
political  fellowship  ;  the  white  blood  had  been   adul- 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.      107 

terated,  and  government  had  become  a  by- word  and 
reproach.  The  Pilgrims  Fathers  who  came  flying  from 
persecution,  piously  returned  thanks  to  God  for  the 
wonderful  dispensation  of  His  Providence  in  sweeping 
away  whole  tribes  of  Indians  with  pestilence.  The 
Indian  was  considered  by  them  an  incumbrance  upon 
the  land,  and  the  mode  of  dealing  with  him  was  en- 
tirely discretionary.  The  whole  of  Rhode  Island  was 
bought  for  fifty  fathoms  of  beads.  But  the  colonies 
invariably  claimed  possession  under  the  royal  charters, 
and  not  by  purchase.  In  war,  the  Indian  was  never 
treated  as  a  civilized  enemy.  The  male  adults  were 
exterminated.  The  females  and  children  were  reduced 
to  slavery.  Massachusetts  sold  the  son  of  King 
Philip  into  slavery.  In  Virginia,  Massachusetts? 
Connecticut,  Maryland  and  Pennsylvania,  laws  were 
passed,  some  still  existing,  to  regulate,  to  protect 
and  to  punish  Indians.  In  Massachusetts  the  in- 
termarriage of  an  Indian  and  white  was  forbidden  as 
debasing  the  Anglo-Saxon  blood.  The  white  man  by 
his  oath  could  purge  himself  of  a  charge  brought  by 
an  Indian.  In  Connecticut  as  late  as  1774,  we  find  a 
statute  enacted  which  provides  that  if  any  Negro, 
Indian  or  Mulatto  servant  is  found  wandering  out  of 
the  town  of  his  residence  without  a  written  pass,  he  is 
made  liable  to  seizure  and  return  to  his  master.  At  a 
recent  day  Maine  had  passed  an  Act  "  for  the  regula- 
"  tion  of  the  Penobscot  and  Passamaquoddy  tribes." 
Everywhere  the  laws  of  the  State  were  extended  over 
the  Indian.  The  difference  between  his  condition 
North  and  his  condition  South,  was  that  at  the  North 
he  was  placed  upon  the  level  of  a  slave,  and  at  the 
South  he  was  treated  simply  as  an  uncivilized  fieeman. 


108      THE  CRADLE  OP  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

He  had  no  rights  at  the  North  which  a  white  man  was 
bound  to  respect.  Georgia  proposed  to  give  him  every 
right  which  the  laws  extended  to  the  whites. 

Understanding  perfectly  the  absolute  sovereignty 
which  had  been  claimed  and  exercised  by  the  other  States 
in  this  matter  Georgia  repudiated  definitely  and  finally 
the  idea  of  admitting  the  Indian  to  her  political  family. 
There  was  no  place  for  him  intermediate  between  the 
slave  and  the  master.  He  was  a  weed,  indigenous  to 
the  soil  it  is  true,  intended  doubtless  for  a  good  purpose 
in  the  economy  of  nature,  but  not  for  a  moment  to  be 
tolerated  among  the  life-giving  and  health-preserving 
plants  of  a  cultivated  garden.  Not  all  the  logic  nor  all 
the  rhapsodies  of  the  new  generation  of  humanita- 
rians, who  looked  to  equal  political  and  civil  rights 
between  the  white  man  and  the  Indian  could  convince 
the  bold  Saxons  who  won  their  independence  from 
Great  Britain  that  it  was  their  duty  to  adulterate  their 
white  blood  and  sink  to  a  level  with  the  descendants 
of  the  Castilian  of  the  Southern  Continent.  No  Federal 
agent  to  the  Indian  tribes  could  convince  them  that 
such  was  their  duty.  The  Indian  must  go.  There  had 
been  enough  said  about  the  noble  red  man,  his  happy 
hunting  grounds,  and  how  his  untutored  mind  sees  God 
in  the  clouds  and  hears  him  in  the  wind.  All  that  was 
very  pretty  in  poetry ;  but  in  plain  prose  the  Indian  was 
a  murderous,  treacherous  savage,  who  flattened  his  skull 
between  boards  and  hung  brass  trinkets  from  his  nostrils, 
who  sang  the  most  remarkable  noises  and  beat  the 
most  discordant  tunes  on  the  harshest  sorts  of  instru- 
ments, who  traded  off  a  league  of  land  for  a  glass  neck- 
lace and  wore  a  flap  around  his  middle,  who  stuck  fish 
bones  through  his  ears  and  painted  himself  like  a  zebra, 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.      109 

who  jumped  about  like  an  idiot  in  what  he  called  a  war 
dance  or  a  corn  dance,  and  lived  like  the  beasts  of  the 
field,  leaving  behind  him  not  a  trace  of  the  purpose  of 
his  creation.  Georgia  was  the  only  one  of  the  original 
States  burthened  with  the  presence  of  this  nuisance; 
and  she  concluded  it  was  time  to  devote  her  soil  to 
something  better. 

Georgia  prosecuted  her  efforts  to  obtain  from  the 
Creeks  their  consent  to  removal.  A  portion  of  the 
chiefs  who  represented .  the  Southern  Creeks  were 
friendly  to  the  Georgians.  The  Upper  Creeks,  who 
had  united  with  Tecumseh  and  waged  war  against  the 
United  States,  had  been  conquered,  and  had  never 
been  recognized  as  having  a  voice  in  treaties  or  nego- 
tiations with  the  States  or  Federal  Government.  The 
chiefs  of  the  Lower  Creeks,  representing  the  nation, 
signed  a  treaty  of  sale  at  Indian  Springs.  This 
treaty,  despite  the  objections  of  the  Indian  agents, 
was  ratified  by  the  United  States  Senate  and  signed  by 
the  President.  It  thus  became,  according  to  the 
theory  of  Mr.  Adams  and  the  party  who  agreed  with 
him  as  to  the  dignity  of  such  treaties,  the  supreme  law 
of  the  land. 

But  even  if  this  Indian  Springs  treaty  had  not  been 
completed  with  the  only  recognized  Creek  chiefs,  and 
ratified  by  the  Government  at  Washington,  the  State 
of  Georgia  had  high  ground  upon  which  to  stand  as  to 
her  abstract  right  to  extend  her  laws  over  her  own  soil, 
whether  occupied  by  whites,  Indians  or  Negroes- 
Under  the  treaty-making  power,  the  United  States 
guaranteed  to  the  Indians  the  integrity  of  their  terri- 
tory, and  held,  apart  fi-om  the  treaty-making  power,  that 
the  power  to  regulate  commerce  among  the  Indians  and 


110      THE  CEADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

between  the  United  States,  was  sufficient  to  establish  a 
guardianship  over  the  tribes,  represented  by  an  agent 
who  was  to  act  as  a  minister  plenipotentiary  near  the 
Royal  Wigwam.  I^hese  claims  appeared  to  the  Geor- 
gians to  be  fallacious  and  unwarranted. 

Judge  George  Walton,  an  eminent  jurist,  in  his 
charge  to  the  grand  jury  of  Richmond  county,  in 
regard  to  the  settlement  made  by  General  Clarke, 
in  1795,  within  the  Indian  reservation,  while  condemn- 
ing the  settlement  as  an  iufraction  of  Georgia  laws, 
had  said : 

"  Soon  after  the  accession  of  all  the  States  to  the 
'^  present  Federal  Constitution,  I  stated  my  doubts  to  a 
"grand  jury,  also  of  Wilkes  county,  as  to  treaties 
"  with  savages  being  of  the  same  rank  as  those  of  civ- 
"  ilized  nations  ;  and  was  inclined  to  be  of  the  opioion 
"  that  they  ought  not  to  be  considered  in  the  list  of 
"  supreme  laws,  and  of  equal  efficacy  with  those  in  the 
"  statute  book ;  but  the  construction  of  the  United 
'*  States  has  been  otherwise." 

How  the  tribes  of  Indians  having  simply  an  usu- 
fruct of  the  woods,  and  holding;  them  originally  by  per- 
mission of  the  colonies,  and  afterwards  by  that  of  the 
States,  could  enter  into  treaties  with  the  Union,  and 
those  treaties  become  the  supreme  law  of  the  land  to 
the  exclusion  of  every  right  of  sovereignty  of  the 
State,  was  difficult  to  be  understood.  If  this  were  the 
law,  where  would  the  treaty-power  end  ?  Could  a  col- 
ony of  foreigners  enter  one  of  the  States,  and  claiming 
to  be  a  tribe  or  nation,  enter  into  a  treaty  with  the 
General  Government?  Could  treaties  be  made  with 
wandering  tribes  of  gypsies,  and  thus  be  made  the 
supreme  law  of  the  land  ?  -  All  of  the  other  original 
States  had  dealt  with  Indians  as  their  subjects,  and  had 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.      Ill 

extinguished  their  claims  without  the  interference  or 
interposition  of  the  Washington  authorities.  Several 
of  the  Northern  States  had  extended  then-  laws  over 
the  Indian  reservations  and  incorporated  the  tribes 
among  the  citizens.  But  now  the  Federal  Government 
must  enter  upon  the  soil  of  Georgia,  treat  with  her 
subjects  as  though  they  were  independent  nations,  and 
deny  to  the  Georgia  authorities  even  entrance  upon 
their  own  territory. 

Nor  could  the  people  of  Georgia  understand  how  a 
power  to  regulate  commerce  among  the  Indian  tribes 
could  carry  with  it  a  power  to  exclude  white  traders 
from  the  Indian  country,  to  establish  P^ederal  agencies 
for  their  Government  with  the  powers  of  a  pro-consul, 
and  to  regulate  all  the  domestic  and  municipal  affairs 
of  the  territory.  T  he  article  of  the  Constitution  which 
gave  Congress  the  power  to  regulate  commerce  with 
the  Indians,  at  the  same  time  granted  power  to  regu- 
late commerce  with  foreign  nations  and  between  States. 
It  has  never  been  contended  except  by  extreme  Feder- 
ahsts,  that  the  right  to  regulate  commerce  between  the 
States  would  justify  the  United  States  in  excluding 
traders  from  one  State  or  another,  or  to  appoint  official 
traders  throughout  a  State,  to  the  exclusion  of  all 
other  citizens.  Yet  this  was  the  power  claimed  in  the 
case  of  commerce  with  Indians,  and  which  is  practiced 
down  to  the  present  day. 

The  Georgians  contended  that,  even  if  their  State 
had  not  been  one  of  the  original  colonies,  the  United 
States  would  not  have  had  jurisdiction  over  the  vacant 
and  unpatented  lands  within  her  borders.  It  was  held 
that  the  Indian  was  not  an  occupyer.  He  was  simply 
an  overrunner,  and  had  not  the  faintest  claim,  except 


112      THE  CBADLB  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

such  as  Georgia  might  permit,  to  the  soil  upon  which 
he  hunted.     In  the  matter  of  vacant  lands  within  the 
limit  of  a  State,  the  right  of  the  United  States  to  their 
possession  has  been  often  seriously  questioned  by  even 
those  States  which  have  been  constructed  from  terri- 
tory  undoubtedly   possessed   by   the    United    States. 
Mississippi,  Illinois  and  Indiana  have  all  contended  that 
on  the  organization  of  a  State  and  its  admission  into 
the  Union,  it  entered,  in  the  language  of  the  Act  of 
Congress  accepting  the  territorial  claim  from  the  States, 
"  with  the  same  rights  of  sovereignty,  freedom,  and 
"  independence  as  the  other  States."     Could  the  State 
of  Indiana  be  as  independent,  or  as  sovereign  as  the 
State  of  Connecticut,  if  a   large  part    of   her  terri- 
tory, unlike  the  territory  of  Connecticut,  remained  in 
the  possession   of   the   United   States?      Could  the 
United  States,  owning  large  bodies  of  unpatented  or 
vacant  lands  in  the  heart  of  a  State,  set  up  a  govern- 
ment to  regulate  the  same,  as  independent  of  that  of 
the  State,  as  are  the  navy  yards,  the  barracks,  or  the 
forts  ?     To  ask  such  a  question  appeared  to  the  sover- 
eign people  of  the  State  of  Indiana,  in  1829,  to  justify 
an  instant  and  decisive  answer  in  the  negative.      If, 
then,  a  question  could  arise  as  to  the  right  of  the  Fed- 
eral Government  to  retain  ownership  of  vacant  lands  in 
a  State  framed  from  a  territory,  how  much  stronger  was 
the  question  when  applied  to  one  of  the  original  colo- 
nies, and  to  an   Indian  reservation?      Georgia  con- 
tended that  she  had  absolute  dominion  over  the  Indian 
lands,  and  could,  at  pleasure,  extinguish  the  Indian 
title  by  extending  to  their  reservation  the  municipal 
regulations  of  the  State.     The  case  of  Fletcher  and 
Peck  confirmed  this  claim,  so  far  as  to  establish  the 


THE  CRAJDLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.  113 

doctrine  that  the  Indians  are  to  be  considered  merely 
occupants.  It  established,  also,  as  has  been  seen,  the 
doctrine  that  over  the  Indian  lands  which  lie  within  the 
common  territory,  the  United  States  possess  the  legal 
title,  subject  to  that  occupancy,  and  with  an  absolute' 
and  exclusive  right  to  extinguish  the  Indian  title  of 
occupancy,  either  by  conquest  or  purchase.  Clearly, 
then,  if  the  United  States,  by  virtue  of  their  sover- 
eignty over  the  common  territory,  could  extinguish  the 
Indian  occupancy  at  pleasure,  it  followed  that  Georgia 
had  the  right  to  extinguish  in  like  manner  the  Indian 
claims  within  her  own  borders. 

It  was  better  that  the  central  power  of  the  Govern- 
ment, at  Washington,  should  deal  with  all  the  Indian 
tribes.  If  that  power  had  to  deal  only  with  tribes 
outside  the  States,  leaving  it  to  the  State  authorities  to 
deal  with  those  inside,  it  was  clear  that  in  military 
movements  there  could  not  be  that  concert  of  action 
necessary  for  prompt  defense  of  an  extensive  frontier 
against  a  wily  and  nomadic  enemy.  Hence  it  was  that 
Georgia  in  her  patriotic  cession  to  the  United  States, 
stipulated  that  the  United  States  should  extinguish  the 
Indian  title  as  soon  as  possible.  Here  was  a  distinct 
compact  between  the  State  and  the  General  Govern- 
ment. Georgia  consented  for  the  Federal  Government  to 
do  what  she  herself  might  have  done,  but  which  she 
well  knew  could  be  done  more  speedily,  more  satisfac- 
torily, and  more  peaceably  by  the  powers  at  Washing- 
ton. In  extinguishing  the  claims  herself,  the  Indian 
would  still  be  within  her  borders ;  the  money  received 
by  him  for  the  cession  would  be  soon  spent ;  his  hunt- 
ing grounds  would  be  filled  with  white  settlers,  and 
becoming  a  vagrant,  he  would  soon  be  a  burden  to  the 


114      THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

State.  The  United  States,  in  extinguishing  the  title 
could  give  him  better  and  more  extensive  hunting 
grounds  beyond  the  Mississippi,  and  hence  Georgia 
was  content  to  surrender  her  magnificent  territory  to 
the  United  States,  provided  they  would  remove  the 
Indian  at  once.  In  consenting  thus  to  restrict  her 
right  of  soil  and  her  sovereignty,  Georgia  looked,  with 
confidence  in  the  plighted  faith  of  the  Union,  to  the 
prompt  removal  of  the  Indians,  and  the  speedy  settle- 
ment of  the  vacant  territory. 

It  was  in  1802  that  the  cession  was  made.  Twenty 
years  had  passed  away.  New  States  had  been  organ- 
ized and  received  into  the  Union  fi-om  even  beyond  the 
Mississippi  river,  and  still  the  Federal  Government,  as 
though  determined  to  prevent  the  development  of  the 
Gulf  States,  had  not  extinguished  the  Indian  titles  in 
Georgia,  nor  in  Alabama  and  Mississippi.  Still  the 
savages  hovered  on  the  Georgia  fi'ontier  and  pressed 
back  the  step  of  civilization.  It  was  as  though  a 
deadly  miasma  rested  upon  the  brow  of  the  State ;  and 
energy,  enUghtenment  and  progress  held  back  fi-om 
the  contagion.  Is  it  wonderfiil  that  Georgia  at  last 
resolved  to  do  what  the  United  States,  after  accepting 
her  imperial  grant,  had  failed  to  do  ? 

The  slavery  agitation  had  begun  to  raise  its  head. 
The  Missouri  question  had  aroused  the  Freesoilers  to 
active  exertions,  and  growing  out  of  that  body  of  agi- 
tators was  a  class  of  humanitarians  who  believed,  or 
affected  to  believe,  in  the  equahty  of  all  men  before  the 
law.  With  them  the  Caucasian,  the  Negro  and  the 
Indian  were  entitled  to  the  same  consideration;  and 
they  would  listen  to  no  argument  drawn  from  the  dif- 
ference in  origin,  habits  mi  circumstances  of  the  races 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.      115 

antagonistic  to  their  optimistic  theories.  While  some 
of  these  men  were  engaged  in  advocating  the  freedom 
of  the  Negro,  others  had  penetrated  the  Indian  nations, 
and  were  using  every  argument  and  artifice  to  indue© 
them  to  withhold  their  consent  to  a  relinquishment  of 
their  lands.  These  men  contended  with  the  people  of 
Georgia  that  the  Indian  was  a  man  and  brother ;  that 
he  should  not  be  damned  for  a  skin  not  colored  Uke 
their  own;  and  that  having  been  once  lords  of  the  forest 
and  free  as  the  winds,  they  should  be  received  into  the 
political  family  of  the  State,  endowed  with  the  privi- 
leges of  citizenship,  and  mingled  in  blood  with  the 
other  races  which  had  visited  and  populated  the  land. 
It  was  cruel,  they  contended,  to  treat  these  innocent 
and  simple  natives  as  a  lower  order  of  humanity,  desti- 
tute of  the  claims  of  society,  and  unfit  for  alliance  with 
the  white  man.  It  was  brutal  to  drive  them  from 
their  hunting  grounds  and  transport  them  to  unknown 
wilds  far  distant  from  the  scenes  of  their  birth.  The 
true  policy,  dictated  by  reason  and  humanity,  was  to 
permit  the  Indian  to  retain  his  native  lands,  to  force 
him  to  possess  them,  not  as  an  usufruct  held  in  com- 
mon, subject  to  the  council,  but  by  allodial  tenure ;  in 
fine,  to  make  him  a  citizen  living  on  his  own  farm  and 
to  extend  over  him  the  laws  of  the  State.  K  he  should 
alienate  his  land  and  wander  out  among  the  whites, 
so  much  the  better,  for  the  bond  of  tribe  would  be 
broken.  He  would  sink  or  rise  with  the  great  body  of 
citizens  of  whatever  color,  and  that  prejudice  which 
would  have  been  arrayed  against  the  tribe,  would  refuse 
to  visit  itself  against  the  individual.  The  French  Rev- 
olution had  developed  les  amis  des  Noirs,  Liberty, 
fi-aternity  and  equality  were  to  cover  all  classes,  coadi- 


116      THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

tions  and  races  of  the  people  alike.  The  Caucasian, 
the  Malay,  the  Indian,  the  Mongolian,  and  the  Negro 
were  all  to  stand  ahke — side  by  side,  and  hand  in  hand 
— under  the  broad  banner  of  a  common  Republic.  Such 
were  the  views  of  heavenly  philanthropy ;  mixed  with 
a  large  quantity  of  mortal  cunning.  The  humanita- 
rians were  generally  traders  and  teachers,  and  a  few 
missionaries  from  the  North.  Some  of  them  were 
pious  men,  but  others  divided  their  time  in  admin- 
istering to  the  Indian  sinner  ghostly  consolation  and 
bad  whiskey.  The  agents  were  generally  men  who, 
finding  their  positions  profitable  in  the  way  of  trade, 
were  exceedingly  anxious  to  preserve  the  autonomy  of 
the  Indian  tribe;  and  failing  in  that,  to  get  possession 
of  the  Indian  lands,  by  having  them  allotted  to  the 
simple-minded  savages.  In  all  events,  they  were 
deadly  hostile  to  the  removal  of  those  upon  whom  they 
lived  and  thrived. 

There  were  others  who  believed  that  the  only  solu- 
tion of  the  Indian  problem  was  in  absorption  of  the 
aboriginees  by  the  whites — men  who  were  true  fiiends 
of  Georgia  and  of  undoubted  purity  of  character.  Of 
such  was  William  H.  Crawford,  one  of  the  ablest  and 
noblest  of  Georgia  statesmen.  As  Secretary  of  War, 
in  1816,  it  was  his  opinion,  that  when  every  effort 
to  introduce  among  the  Indians  ideas  of  separate  prop- 
erty, real  as  well  as  personal,  had  foiled,  the  Govern- 
ment should  encourage  inter-marriage  between  them 
and  the  whites.  While  declaring  that  the  extinction  of 
the  Indian  race  was  abhorrent  to  the  feeUngs  of  an 
enlightened  and  benevolent  nation,  it  appears  that  he 
was  willing  to  extinguish  them  by  contaminating  the 
blood  of  the  progressive  white  man  with  the  imbecihty 


THE  CBADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDEEAOY.      117 

of  one  of  the  feeblest  of  peoples.  It  does  not  appear, 
however,  that  he  proposed  for  the  mongrel  race  to 
which  he  would  have  given  birth,  to  be  admitted  to  the 
full  rights  of  citizenship  enjoyed  by  the  Anglo-Saxon 
conqueror. 

The  thunders  of  the  New  England  church  and  ros- 
trum which  had  agitated  the  Missouri  question  on 
behalf  of  the  black  man,  were  now  hurled  at  the  head 
of  Georgia  in  behalf  of  the  red  man.  Petitions  to 
Congress  were  circulated  through  the  New  England 
States  for  signatures,  addressed  to  congregational  cler- 
gymen, with  instructions  to  have  them  filled  with  as 
many  names  as  could  be  obtained.  These  petitions, 
starting  from  the  pulpit,  supplicated  Congress  to  pro- 
tect the  Indians  in  the  occupancy  of  their  land  and  the 
civil  regulations  they  might  adopt  for  their  own 
guidance,  as  against  the  laws  of  the  States  of  Georgia, 
Alabama  and  Mississippi.  These  very  Christians  were 
aware  that  among  those  Indian  regulations  were  many 
which  were  destructive  to  peace  and  order,  and  abhor- 
rent to  virtue.  Polygamy  was  allowed  by  usage  and 
law.  A  man,  overtaking  a  horse  thief,  might  slay  him. 
An  assault  with  intent  to  murder  or  rape,  was  dis- 
missed with  a  small  fine.  Any  Indian  leaving  his 
home  and  offering  to  emigrate,  forfeited  all  right  to  his 
property.  Any  Indian  who  might  enroll  his  name  as 
an  emigrant  with  the  United  States  agent,  forfeited  his 
citizenship,  and  any  one  buying  his  lands  was  pun- 
ished with  a  hundred  lashes.  If  any  Indian  who  had 
enrolled,  should  dare  to  remain  fifteen  days  within  the 
tribe,  he  might  be  slain.  These  were  the  regulations 
which  the  New  England  clerical  politicians  besought 
Congress  to  sustain  as  against  the  beneficent  laws  of 


118      THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

Georgia.  Circulars  signed  by  women  and  bidding  the 
Congressmen  read,  "with  a  view  to  eternity,"  also  aided 
in  these  appeals  for  the  preservation  of  polygamy. 

The  same  Hne  of  argument,  the  same  claim  of 
national  power,  the  same  straining  of  constitutional 
grants,  the  same  partisan  cries,  the  same  fanatical  delu- 
sion, the  same  incendiary  appeals  from  the  pulpit,  which 
many  years  afterwards  illustrated  another  political 
question,  were  resorted  to  during  John  Q.  Adams'  ad- 
ministration with  reference  to  the  sovereignty  of  a 
State  over  any  and  all  of  its  inhabitants. 

The  claims  of  State  sovereignty  set  up  by  Georgia, 
Alabama  and  Mississippi  in  that  day  were  not  imagi- 
nary and  vain.  They  were  substantial  and  of  supreme 
importance  to  the  very  existence  of  those  common- 
wealths. Chief  McIntosh  and  his  council  of  braves, 
representing  the  Creek  Nation,  under  the  usual  forms  of 
their  law  ceded  their  lands  in  Georgia,  by  the  treaty 
of  Indian  Springs.  The  party  opposed  to  the  sale 
became  violent  and  appealed  to  Washington  for  an  an- 
nulment of  a  treaty  which  they  declared  was  pro- 
cured by  bribery.  The  administration  of  James  Mon- 
roe had  ceased,  and  with  it  had  ceased  for  a  time  that 
scrupulous  regard  for  the  rights  of  the  States  which 
marked  the  immediate  successors  of  Jefferson.  John 
Q  DINGY  Adams  was  now  President,  and  the  policy  of 
his  administration  was.  to  curb  the  pride  of  the  States^ 
to  reduce  their  governors  to  the  position  of  sheriffs, 
and  to  repress  the  growing  empires  of  the  Southwest. 
The  power  of  the  South  was  to  be  broken,  and  one  of 
the  surest  means  to  strangle  the  incipient  giant  was  to 
leave  the  Indian  tribes  as  a  constant  menace  to  the 
growth  and  civilization  of  the  Gulf  country.      There 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.      119 

was  another  consideration  which  controlled  the  philos- 
opher of  Braintree.  The  greater  the  importance  and 
dignity  with  which  the  Indian  might  be  clothed,  the 
greater  the  probability  that  antagonisms  of  race  and 
prejudices  of  color  would  weaken  year  by  year,  and 
finally  vanish  in  a  recognition  of  an  universal  brother- 
hood. Already  the  ideal  republic  of  Plato,  and  the 
actual  commune  of  Rousseau  were  visible  in  the 
near  distance  to  the  radical  poHticians  of  1825.  Al- 
ready the  foundation  was  being  laid  for  the  erection  of 
an  imperial  edifice,  dedicated  to  an  absolute  firaternity 
and  equality,  upon  the  ruins  of  the  autonomy  of  the 
States. 


CHAPTER  VI. 


The  Treaty  of  Indian  Springs— Murder  of  Mcintosh — 
General  Gaines  and  Governor  Troup — Threatened 
Collision  of  State  and  Federal  Forces — The  State 
Sustains  Her  Position — The  CheroTcee  Nation— An 
Appeal  to  the  Supreme  Court — Its  Writ  of  Error 
Disregarded — The  Question  of  Coercion^  cfcc,  i&c. 


"  When  the  United  States,  under  the  treaty-making  power,  claimed 
the  right  to  settle  with  Great  Britain  the  northern  boundary  of  Maine* 
Governor  LiNCOiiN,  of  that  State  insisted  upon  the  right  of  Maine  to 
assert  her  own  boundary.  Fortunately  for  Governor  LiNCOiiN,  he 
lived  in  a  favored  region :  and  his  doctrine  of  State  rights  and  sov- 
ereignty brought  down  no  invectives  upon  his  head,  although  in 
theory,  and  in  language,  too,  he  did  not  lag  far  behind  the  fiery 
Georgian." 

'(Sbnatcb  John  Foesyth,  1831. 

"The  European  journals,  especially  the  English  ones,  which  kad 
followed  the  struggle  with  lively  interest,  had  to  listen  to  many  a 
sneering  remark  about  the  short-sightedness  which,  springing  from 
their  hostility  to  everything  Republican,  had  already  led  them  to 
think  they  saw  the  United  States  bathed  in  the  blood  of  her  citizens, 
and  the  Union  shattered  forever." 

Von  Holst's  Constitutionai.  History. 

"  I  entreat  you  most  earnestly,  now  that  it  is  not  too  late,  to  step 
forth,  and  having  exhausted  the  argument,  to  stand  by  your  arms." 

GOVSBNOB  TKOTJP'S  MbSSAQK. 

All  Georgia  was  in  a  blaze  of  excitement.  The  hos- 
tile Creeks  declared  they  would  not  respect  the  treaty. 
The  State  of  Georgia  took  steps  at  once  to  make  a 
survey  of  the  lands  relinquished  by  the  treaty,  and  to 
throw  them  upon  the  market.  The  Georgians  com- 
plained that  the  agents  had  excited  the  Indians  to  vio- 
late the  stipulations  of  the  treaty.  The  President 
commissioned  Colonel  Andrews  to  investigate  the  com- 


122  THE  CRADLE  OF  TfitE  CONFEDERACY* 

plaints  made  against  the  agents.  General  Gaines  was 
instructed  to  suppress  any  hostilities  on  the  part  of  the 
Indians,  and  to  seek  some  way  by  which  an  understand- 
ing could  be  arrived  at  with  them. 

General  Gaines  proceeded  to  the  scene  of  hostilities, 
and  as  his  intercourse  was  most  closely  with  the  Gov- 
ernment agents,  his  views  of  the  situation  were  very 
soon  turned  against  the  pretensions  of  Georgia.  He 
reported  to  his  Government  that  the  Indian  Springs 
treaty  was  a  fraud.  He  represented  the  people  of 
Georgia  as  longing  to  rob  the  Indian  of  his  lands,  and 
as  resorting  to  the  foulest  means  of  cunning  and  deceit 
to  manufacture  a  treaty,  plausible  on  its  face,  but  un- 
just and  tyrannical  at  heart  He  intimated  that  McIn- 
TOSH  was  but  an  instrument  of  Governor  Troup,  and 
that  he  had  been  used  for  the  base  purpose  of  giving  a 
color  of  consent  for  the  Creek  Nation  when  ninety-nine 
hundredths  of  them  were  utterly  opposed  to  a  cession 
of  their  lands. 

To  this  it  was  replied  by  the  people  of  Georgia  that 
it  was  true  they  wanted  the  lands  of  the  Indian,  but 
they  did  not  seek  to  obtain  them  by  robbery.  The 
Indian  Springs  treaty  gave  the  Creeks  better  and  more 
extensive  lands  in  the  West.  It  gave  them  means  of 
transportation  and  a  vast  sum  of  purchase  money. 
The  Georgians  wanted  the  lands  of  the  Indian  to  make 
them  subserve  the  purposes  of  a  civilized  rather  than 
savage  Jife.  This  was  no  robbery.  It  was  simply 
exercising  the  right  of  conquest,  without  imposing  a 
single  condition  of  hardship  upon  the  subject.  It  was 
extending  the  area  of  Anglo-Saxon  enlightenment  and 
progress,  and  rendering  compact  and  homogeneous  the 
power  of  the  republic  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Missis- 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.  123 

sippi.  They  asserted  also  that  McIntosh,  the  chief  of 
that  branch  of  the  Creeks  which  was  true  to  the  United 
States  in  the  late  war,  and  which  had  conquered  and 
subdued  their  enemies,  the  Red  Sticks,  alone  had  the 
right  to  speak  for  the  Nation.  That  right  had  been 
recognized  by  th^  General  Government  in  a  letter  from 
the  Secretary  of  War,  of  the  17th  March,  1817.  In 
conformity  to  that  recognition,  McIntosh  and  the 
friendly  chiefs  had  been  in  the  habit  of  speaking  and 
still  spoke  for  the  Creeks.  That  the  Eed  Sticks  assas- 
sinated the  faithful  friends  of  the  whites  was  no  reply  to 
the  force  of  this  argument.  They  further  contended 
that  President  Monroe  had  recognized,  and  the  Senate 
had  ratified  the  Indian  Springs  treaty;  that  the  Georgia 
Legislature,  in  pursuance  of  that  ratification  had  en- 
acted a  law  for  the  survey  and  distribution  of  the  ceded 
territory ;  that  citizens  had  acquired  vested  rights 
under  this  treaty  and  the  laws  made  in  pursuance 
thereoi^  which  were  the  supreme  laws  of  the  land ;  and 
that  by  virtue  of  the  decision  of  Fletcher  aginst  Peck, 
those  vested  rights  could  not  be  disturbed,  however  the 
treaty  might  have  been  secured.  They  contended, 
moreover,  that  the  treaty  was  secured  fairly ;  that  if 
money  was  used  to  bribe  the  chiefs,  it  was  nothing 
more  than  had  been  done  fi^om  the  discovery  of  America. 
What  John  Smith  and  William  Penn  could  do  for  a 
few  ounces  of  beads  and  a  dozen  or  so  red  blankets, 
had  now  to  be  done,  in  the  present  advanced  state  of 
Indian  ideas,  with  a  more  substantial  largess.  It 
was  denied  that  the  chiefs  had  been  bribed  by  the 
State.  The  Governor  could  pay  no  money  from  the 
State  treasury  unless  specially  appropriated;  no  ap- 
propriation had  been  made  for  any  such  purpose ;  the 


124      THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

•  contingent  fond  was  barely  enough  to  keep  cattle  out 

of  the  capitol  grounds  and  to  pay  the  hire  of  servants 
about  the  offices  of  State ;  and  finally,  the  treasury 
of  the  State  was  not  able  to  pay  one-tenth  of  the  sums 
which  the  enemies  of  Georgia  had  set  as  the  price  of 
the  treaty.  . 

The  true  motive  for  the  ratification  of  a  treaty  so 
favorable  tq,  the  Georgians,  might  have  been  found  in 
the  relationship  existing  between  the  Governor  of 
Georgia  and  the  great  Creek  chief  George  M.  Troup 
was  born  in  1780,  at  Mcintosh  Bluff,  on  the  west  bank 
of  the  Tombigbee  river,  in  what  is  now  the  State  of 
Alabama.  His  grandfather  was  a  captain  in  the  royal 
army,  and  chief  of  the  Mcintosh  clan  of  Scotland.  For 
valuable  services  in  Florida,  he  was  rewarded  by  King 
George  with  a  grant  of  Mcintosh  Blufl*  and  extensive 
lands  in  Mississippi.  This  Captain  McIntosh  had  one 
son  and  one  daughter.  The  son  was,  like  his  father,  a 
British  officer.  The  daughter  married  an  officer  of  the 
British  army  named  Troup,  while  on  a  visit  to  Eng- 
land. Upon  her  return  to  her  other's  home.  Governor 
Troup  was  born  at  Mcintosh  Bluif.  Captain  McIntosh, 
the  father  of  Mrs.  Troup,  had  a  brother  named  Roder- 
ick McIntosh,  also  an  officer  in  the  royal  army.  He 
was  a  man  of  great  physical  stature  and  courage,  and 
the  embodiment  of  chivalry.  He  took  part  with  the 
Royalists  in  the  Revolution.  His  cousins,  John  and 
Lachlin  McIntosh,  took  part  with  the  Whigs.  Rod- 
erick, or  "  Old  Rory,"  as  he  was  called  famiharly,  took 
to  himself  a  squaw  of  the  Creek  Nation,  and  was  the 
father  of  Chief  William  McIntosh.  The  chief  partook 
of  the  characteristics  of  the  McIntosh  family.  He  was 
brave  as  a  lion.     His  stature  was  above  that  of  ordi- 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.      125 

nary  men.  His  intellect,  naturally  strong,  became  cul- 
tivated by  association  with  white  men  of  position  and 
education.  These  scions  of  the  McIntosh  clan  were 
born  to  command.  They  were  chiefs  in  Scotland,  chiefs 
in  the  royal  and  patriot  armies,  and  chiefs  in  the 
Indian  tribes.  The  near  relationship  between  the  Gov- 
ernor and  the  Indian  chief,  might  have  suggested  to 
President  Adams  a  reason  for  the  friendly  treaty  of 
Indian  Springs  more  powerful  than  bribery. 

The  claim  of  Georgia  under  the  treaty  of  Indian 
Springs  was  undisputable.  The  compact  of  1802 
bound  the  United  States,  in  consideration  of  the  cession 
of  a  princely  domain,  to  extinguish  for  Georgia  all  the 
Indian  claims  within  her  borders.  When,  through 
their  agents,  the  contract  of  Indian  Springs  was  nego- 
tiated, and  the  Government  had  ratified  the  bargain,  the 
right  of  Georgia  became  irrevocably  vested;  the 
authority  of  the  United  States  was  then  at  an  end. 
The  power  was  executed  and  the  Government  was  func- 
tus officio  as  to  the  subject.  The  United  States  had 
conferred  no  right  upon  Georgia:  they  had  simply 
removed  an  incumbrance  to  a  pre-existing  right,  and 
they  could  not  now  replace  that  encumbrance  by  a  new 
contract  with  the  Indians. 

Georgia  denied  that  the  Indian  Intercourse  Act 
applied  to  this  subject.  It  applied  to  the  intrusion  of 
unauthorized  individuals,  and  not  to  the  acts  of  the 
sovereign  State.  This  was  obvious  from  its  terms  and 
from  the  fact  that  the  passport  of  the  Governor  of  the 
State,  equally  with  that  of  the  President,  dispensed 
with  some  of  its  penalties. 

That  the  title  of  Georgia  to  the  fee  simple  of  Indian 
lands  was  unquestionable  is  evidenced  by  the  second 


126      THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

article  of  the  agreement  and  cession  wherein,  through 
abundant  T3aution  on  the  part  of  the  State,  the  United 
States  "cede  to  the  State  of  Georgia  whatever  claim, 
"  right  or  title  they  may  have  to  the  jurisdiction  or  soil 
"  of  those  lands."  If  that  language  meant  anything, 
it  meant  that  the  United  States  were  debarred  from 
questioning  the  right  of  Georgia  to  enter  upon  her  own 
soil  at  her  own  pleasure  for  the  purpose  of  survey. 
The  soil  and  jurisdiction  being  in  Georgia,  it  was  no 
more  lawflil  for  the  United  States  to  introduce  other 
persons  there,  than  it  would  have  been  for  them  to 
introduce  into  the  settled  portions  of  Georgia  a  colony 
of  free  persons  of  color,  of  Indians  or  of  white  people. 
The  utmost  allowable  to  the  United  States  in  this  res- 
pect was  the  settlement  within  the  territory  of  such 
officers  as  were  necessary  for  the  regulation  of  com- 
merce with  the  Indians.  The  United  States,  never- 
theless, by  permission  and  toleration,  even  by  encour- 
agement, had  introduced  there  from  time  to  time,  white 
persons  and  others  who  had  made  settiements,  exercised 
ownership  over  the  soil  and  cultivated .  it  in  the  same 
manner  as  though  the  United  States,  and  not  Georgia, 
possessed  the  right  of  soil  and  jurisdiction.  These 
very  persons,  so  illegally  occupying  the  soil  of  Georgia 
under  the  protection  of  the  United  States,  were  chieily 
instrumental  in  preventing  the  Indians  from  leaving  the 
country. 

Prominent  among  these  disturbers  of  the  peace  was 
the  United  States  agent.  This  person,  indebted  for  his 
lucrative  office  to  the  administration,  lost  no  oppor- 
tunity to  fortify  his  present  position  and  to  recommend 
his  loyalty  to  the  new  administration.  He  not  only 
inflamed  the  Creeks  agamst  McIntosh,  but  went  out 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.  127 

among  the  people  of  Georgia  electioneering  against 
Troup.  The  Governor  in  his  next  annual  message  al- 
luded to  his  conduct,  in  the  following  language : 

"  I  had  for  the  first  time  come  into  office  when  a 
"  subject  of  peculiar  delicacy  presented  itself,  and 
''  being  intimately  connected  with  the  independence  of 
"  the  elective  franchise  (without  which  it  would  be  in 
"  vain  for  Georgia  to  claim  for  herself  the  attributes 
"  of  a  sovereign  State),  it  was  made  known  to  the 
*'  President  that  on  occasion  of  the  election  just  then 
"  terminated,  an  officer  in  his  employ,  bearing  a  high 
"and  dignified  commission,  and  being  a-  citizen  of 
"  another  State,  had  abandoned  his  post  to  mingle  in 
"  the  strifes  of  that  election,  had  espoused  the  cause  of 
"  one  of  the  parties  to  the  prejudice  of  the  other,  and 
"  by  the  weight  and  influence  of  his  office,  united  with 
"  the  most  enthusiastic  ardor,  had  rendered  himself  so 
"  signally  conspicuous,  that  the  chief  magistrate  could 
"  not  conscientiously  forbear,  among  his  first  acts,  to 
"  complain  to  the  executive  government  of  the  Union 
"  of  this  outrage  upon  the  most  sacred  of  all  the  rights 
*'  of  sovereignty. 

The  President  paid  no  attention  to  this  remon- 
strance. It  was  evident  that  the  agent  by  positive 
instruction  or  implied  consent,  was  authorized  to  leave 
his  station,  assail  the  Governor  of  Georgia,  and  teach 
the  Indians  that  their  Great  Father  at  Washington  was 
not  the  fi-iend  of  the  Governor  of  Georgia,  nor  of  those 
Indians  who  were  his  alfies.  He  labored  to  prevent 
the  treaty  at  Indian  Springs,  and  faihng  in  that,  mis- 
represented it  at  Washington.  All  the  mischiefs, 
disorders,  and  heart-burnings,  which  followed  this  treaty 
were  organized  and  fostered  by  this  man.  In  justice 
to  him,  he  should  be  considered,  however,  as  the  instru- 
ment of  the  administration;  for  whatever  he  said  or  did 
was  approved  by  his  principal.    No  evil  report  of  him 


• 


128      THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

would  be  listened  to ;  the  word  of  no  man  taken 
against  him;  all  testimony  in  his  favor  was  eagerly 
received;  all  against  him  promptly  discredited.  If  one 
of  the  foreign  governments  should  request  another  to 
remove  its  ambassador  for  language  and  conduct  unbe- 
coming his  mission,  the  request  would  be  instantly 
granted,  however  much  the  conduct  of  tjie  minister 
might  be  subsequently  approved  by  his  government. 
In  this  case,  however,  when  the  Governor  of  Georgia 
had  denounced  the  agent  as  an  enemy  to  her  interests, 
a  fomenter  of  disturbance,  a  breaker  of  treaties,  the 
Federal  Government  disregarded  the  wish  of  the  State, 
and  the  agent  himself  treated  it  with  derision  and  con- 
tempt. Failing  in  his  effort  to  defeat  the  ratification  of 
the  Indian  Springs  treaty,  this  Indian  agent,  in  the 
face  of  the  action  of  the  President  and  of  the  Senate, 
returned  from  Washington  and  proceeded  to  agitate  for 
its  annulment.  How  could  it  be  annulled  ?  McIntosh 
was  President  of  the  National  Council ;  he  was  author- 
ized to  make  the  treaty.  '  Not  only  was  he  recognized 
by  the  Indian  nation  as  the  officer  to  negotiate,  but  the 
Federal  Government  had  time  and  again  declared  that 
he  was  the  only  competent  authority  for  that  purpose. 
There  was  only  one  way  to  set  it  aside.  It  must  be 
made  to  appear  that  the  act  of  McIntosh  was  unau- 
thorized. Not  by  an  appeal  to  usages,  customs  and 
laws ;  but  by  an  appeal  to  the  higher  law,  the  sword, 
or  rather  the  bow  and  arrow.  Independent  of  the 
treaty,  McIntosh  and  his  chiefs  had  consented  that 
Georgia  should  survey  the  lands,  some  months  prior  to 
the  period  set  for  removal.  The  agent  seized  upon 
this  agreement  to  array  the  Indians  and  the  Federal 
Government    against    the    State.      The    treaty    was 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONPEDEBACY.  129 

supreme  law,  according  to  the  broad  Federal  idea,  now 
that  it  was  ratified ;  but  as  McIntosh's  consent  to  the 
survey  was  not  a  part  of  the  treaty,  the  agent,  on  that 
ground,  advised  the  Indians  to  resist  the  survey.  This 
advice,  coming  fi'om  the  agent  of  the  Great  Father,  was 
equivalent  to  a  mandate.  McIntosh  saw  his  danger. 
The  life  of  this  splendid  chief,  in  whose  veins  flowed 
the  blood  of  Indian  kings  and  Scottish  princes,  whose 
breast  was  adorned  with  the  badge  of  a  general  of  the 
United  States  army,  who  had  served  gallantly  under 
Jackson,  and  who  had  been  the  unflinching,  unfailing, 
constant  friend  of  the 'white  man,  was  now  imperilled 
by  the  cunning  machinations  of  an  Indian  agent.  The 
Red  Sticks  remembered  that  it  was  McIntosh  who  held 
them  in  check;  although  by  the  interposition  of 
his  iron  hand,  he  had  saved  them  from  the  ruin  to 
which  Tecumseh  would  certainly  have  led  them.  They 
were  savages,  and  needed  only  an  occasion  for  ven- 
geance. The  agent  furnished  the  occasion.  They 
notified  the  Georgia  surveyors  that  they  must  desist 
from  running  their  lines.  To  the  number  of  three 
hundred  they  surrounded  the  house  of  McIntosh  at 
night,  and  sent  a  hundred  bullets  through  the  body  of 
this  defenceless  man.  The  assassins  declared  to  the 
wife  of  the  chief  that  they  were  supported  and  encour- 
aged in  their  murderous  mission  by  the  agent. 

The  Governor  caUed  out  the  militia  to  enforce  the 
treaty,  and  to  protect  the  surveyors  under  the  supple- 
mental agreement.  Generals  Wimberly,  Shorter  and 
Miller  were  ordered  to  hold  their  divisions  in  readi- 
ness. 

The  President  of  the  United  States,  at  this  juncture, 
interferes  and  commands  the  survey  to  cease.    Whence 


130      THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

came  the  authority  for  this  virtual  annulment  of  a 
treaty  ratified  by  Congress  ?     The  President  had  sworn 
to  execute  the  laws,  and  here  he  was  setting  himself 
against  what,  by  his  own  logic,  was  one  of  the  supreme 
laws  of  the  land.     As  a  pretext  for  his  interposition  he 
alleged  that  it  was  made  in  accordance  with  the  eighth 
article  of  the  treaty  which  guarantees  protection  to  the 
friendly  Indians.      Under  that  guaranty  the  United 
States  passively  suffer  McIntosh  and  his  friends  to  be 
murdered  ;  in  the  hour  of  peril  no  arm  is  lifted  to  pro- 
tect or  save ;  after  the  commission  of  the  foul  deed  no 
voice  comes  from  Washington  for  vengeance.      The 
danger  past,  the  chiefs  massacreed,  their  property  rav- 
ished, the  surviving  friends  of  McIntosh  in  exile  in 
Georgia  asldng  bread  and  protection,  after  abandoning 
every  valuable  to  the  insurgents,  the  United  States  now 
step  forth  with  their  armed  power  to  defend,  under  the 
eighth  article  of  the  treaty,  the  so-oalled  friendly  Indians 
against  their  enemies.     It  might  be  supposed  that  the 
enemies  to  be  defended  against  were  the  assassins,  in 
the  employment  of  Cpothleyoholo.     No,  the  Federal 
administration  find  the  enemies  contemplated  by  the 
treaty  to  be  the  people  of  Greorgia,  at  whose  firesides 
the  friendly  Indians  were  then  resting.      Could  the 
force  of  absurdity  go  farther?     It  was  supposed  that 
the  Federal  Government  at  its  creation  was  a  govern- 
ment of  delegated  powers  expressly  stated,  or  of  powers 
necessarily  implied  for  the  support  and  maintenance  of 
those  expressly  stated.    Yet,  here,  the  Government  was 
straining  the  treaty-making  power  in  order  to  dispose 
of  the  Indian  most  effectually  and  according  to  what- 
ever pohcy  might  suit  its  pleasure ;  it  was  at  the  same 
time  using  the  commerce-regulating  power  to  acquire 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY,  131 

possession  of  the  territory  of  a  State  and  to  confine  the 
benefit  of  trading  posts  to  the  friends  of  the  agent. 
Worse  than  all;  while  denying  the  validity  of  a  treaty 
which  the  Senate  had  approved,  and  which  stood  on 
the  statute  book  as  one  of  the  supreme  laws  of  the 
land,  it  was  now  seeking  under  a  clause  of  that  treaty 
which  was  intended  to  protect  friendly  Indians  from 
the  violence  of  hostile  Indians,  actually  to  defend  the 
unjust  pretensions  of  the  hostile  Indians  who  stood 
before  them  with  the  blood  of  the  friendly  Indians  still 
dripping  from  their  hands.  The  indignation  of  the 
State  was  aroused  against  these  alleged  usurpations  of 
the  General  Government,  and  the  hills  and  valleys  ,of 
Georgia,  from  the  mountains  to  the  sea,  rang  with  the 
cry  of  '^  Troup  and  the  Treaty." 

The  man  with  whom  General  Gaines  was  to  deal 
upon  reaching  Georgia,  was  George  M.  Troup.  It  was  a 
a  case  of  flint  meeting  steel.  From  the  time  he  reached 
his  majority,  Troup  had  been  in  public  life  as  a  repre- 
sentative of  the  people.  He  supported  the  claims  of 
Jefferson  against  Adams  when  a  member  of  the  Geor- 
gia Legislature.  As  Representative  in  Congress  he 
combatted  the  compromise  made  by  the  Federal  Legis- 
lature with  the  Yazoo  speculators.  As  chairman  of 
the  Committee  on  Military  Affairs,  he  was  a  leading 
spirit  in  the  war  of  1812.  As  Senator  in  Congress, 
he  pleaded  for  the  removal  of  the  Indians.  He  was 
always  active,  fervid,  and  faithful.  Every  interest  of 
his  people  found  in  him  a  stubborn  and  determined 
advocate. 

General  Gaines  was  received  by  the  people  of  Geor- 
gia with  2;reat  courtesy.  While  at  Milledgeville,  he 
informed  the  Governor  that  his  instructions  from  Wash- 


132      THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

ington  were  that  no  survey  was  to  be  made  until  the 
removal  of  the  Indians  under  the  treaty.  The  only 
point  of  controversy  then  existing  was  the  authority 
of  the  ehiefs  to  permit  a  survey  outside  of  the  letter  of 
the  treaty.  Certainly  if  the  Indians  who  made  the 
treaty  did  not  object,  Georgia  had  a  clear  right  to  sur- 
vey her  own  fee  simple.  It  was  a  matter  with  which 
the  United  States  had  nothing  to  do.  The  reply  of 
Troup  to  this  letter  was  courteous  but  decided.  While 
deploring  the  vascillating  conduct  of  the  administration 
at  Washington,  he  said :  "  On  the  part  of  the  govern- 
^'  ment  of  Georgia,  the  will  of  its  highest  constitutional 
"  authorities  has  been  declared,  upon  the  most  solemn 
'^  deliberation,  that  the  Hue  shall  be  run  and  the  survey 
""  executed.  It  is  for  you,  therefore,  to  bring  it  to  an 
"  issue ;  it  is  only  for  me  to  repeat  that,  cost  what  it 
"  will,  the  line  will  be  run  and  the  survey  effected." 

At  the  same  time  the  Governor  suggested  that  the 
Georgia  commissioners  should  be  present  at  the  coun- 
cil to  be  held  by  General  Gaines  at  Broken  Arrow,  so 
as  to  meet  and  repel  any  charges  or  misstatements  pre- 
ferred by  the  agent  or  the  hostile  Indians.  To  this 
General  Gaines  objected.  He  was  to  arrive  at  the  truth 
by  an  ex  parte  examination.  It  appeared  as  though 
the  approaching  council  was  not  for  the  purpose  of  as- 
certaining facts,  but  to  carry  out  a  policy  already 
decided  upon  by  President  Adams.  Upon  reaching 
Flint  river,  General  Gaines  held  a  council  with  leading 
chiefs,  and  forthwith  dispatched  to  the  Governor  a  cer- 
tificate of  two  persons  of  doubtflil.  character  to  the 
eflect  that  neither  General  McIntosh  nor  the  chiefs  had 
ever  consented  to  a  survey.  General  Gaines  added,  in 
a  letter,  that  this  certificate  "  proves  that  your  excel- 


THE  CRADLE  OP  THE  CONFEDERACY.      133 

"  lency  has  been  greatly  deceived  in  supposing  that  the 
"  McIntosh  party  ever  consented  to  the  survey  of  the 
"  ceded  territory  being  commenced  before  the  time  set 
"  forth  in  the  treaty  for  their  removal,"  and  that  it 
became  "  his  duty  to  remonstrate  against  the  surveys 
"•'being  commenced  until  the  Indians  'shall  have  re- 
"  moved,  agreeably  to  the  treaty."  Down  to  this  time 
not  a  word  had  been  said  as  to  the  illegality  or  annul- 
ment of  the  treaty  itself  On  every  occasion  General 
Gaines  advised  the  Indians  to  entertain  no  hope  as  to 
its  rescision.  The  stopping  of  the  survey  was  de- 
signed, however,  simply  as  a  pretext  for  the  entire  ab- 
rogation of  the  treaty. 

Governor  Troup  so  understood  it.  General  Gaines 
perhaps  did  not  at"  that  time  understand  the  purpose  of 
President  Adams'  cabinet. 

Governor  Troup  very  justly  felt  aggrieved  that 
Georgia  was  refused  an  audience  at  the  council ;  that 
her  two  eminent  citizens,  Campbell  and  Merriwether 
who  had  negotiated  the  treaty  of  Indian  Springs,  on 
the  part  of  the  United  States,  were  cavalierly  excluded 
from  vindicating  their  mission;  and  now  that  an  ex 
parte  examination  of,  and  certificate  from,  two  Indians 
should  be  set  forth  as  conclusive  testimony,  without 
application  to  the  Governor  of  Georgia  to  know  what 
evidence  was  in  his  possession  to  the  contrary. 

The  Governor  repHed  :  "  The  certificate  of  Mar- 
"  SHALL,  no  matter  how  procured,  is  one  of  the  most 
'^  daring  efforts  that  ever  was  attempted  by  mahgnant 
"  villainy  to  palm  a  falsehood  upon  credulity."  At  that 
very  moment  the  Governor  had  in  his  possession  the 
agreement  of  McIntosh  to  the  survey.  lie  offered  to 
make  oath  to  the  fact,  and   concluded  his  letter  as  fol- 


134      THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

lows  :  '^  I  very  well  know  from  the  late  events  which 
"  have  transpired  under  the  eyes  of  the  commissioners, 
"  that  the  oath  even  of  a  Governor  of  Georgia  may  be 
"  passed  for  nothing,  and  that  any  vagabond  of  the 
"  Indian  country  may  be  put  in  requisition  to  discredit 
"  him."  This  was  hot  language,  and  barely  to  be  pal- 
liated on  the  ground  of  deep  popular  excitement. 

General  Gaines  responded  to  this  letter,  through  the 
public  press.  He  tried  to  sustain  the  character  of  the 
two  persons  who  had  signed  the  certificate^  and  declared 
that  the  "  malignant  villainy  "  was  all  on  the  part  of 
those  who  had  secured  the  treaty.  As  to  the  question 
of  the  Governor's  veracity  he  used  this  remarkable 
language  :  "  If  you  will  take  the  trouble  to  read  the 
"  newspaper  essays  with  which  the  presses  have  been 
"  teeming  for  some  years  past,  you  will  find  that  many 
"  of  the  essayists  have  had  the  hardihood  to  refuse 
"  credence  to  the  word  of  their  chief  magistrate,  and 
"  yet  we  have  no  reason  to  despair  of  the  Repubhc." 

To  this  unmilitary  letter  Governor  Troup  responded 
curtly  by  forbidding  the  General  to  have  any  further 
intercourse  with  the  Georgia  government  And  now 
the  Secretary  of  War,  alleging  intrigue  and  deceit  in 
the  procurement  of  the  treaty,  addressed  the  Governor 
as  follows  :  "  I  am,  therefore,  directed  by  the  Presi- 
"  dent,  to  state  distinctly  to  your  excellency  that  for 
"  the  present  he  will  not  permit  such  entry  or  survey 
"  to  be  made."  To  this  the  Governor  replied  by  saying 
that  no  Indian  treaty  had  ever  been  negotiated  in  better 
faith;  that  if  there  had  been  corruption  in  its  procure- 
ment, the  principles  of  the  case  of  Fletcher  and  Peck, 
estopped  the  United  States  from  annulHng  it ;  and  fur- 
thermore that  he  would  advise  the  Georgia  Legislature 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.      135 

on  its  first  meeting  "  to  resist  any  effort  which  might 
^'be  made  to  wrest  from  the  State  the  territory  ac- 
<^  quired  by  that  treaty,  no  matter  by  what  authority 
"that  effort  be  made."  Remonstrating  against  the 
conduct  of  General  Gaines,  the  Governor  wrote  to  the 
President  of  the  United  States,  as  follows  :  "  In  the 
"  enclosed  gazette  you  will  find  another  insolent  letter, 
"  dated  the  16th  instant,  addressed  by  your  agent, 
"  Brevet  Major  General  Gaines,  to  the  chief  magis- 
"  trate  of  this  State.  Having  been  betrayed  by  his 
*'  passions  into  the  most  violent  excesses,  he  is  pre- 
"  sented  before  you  at  this  moment  as  your  commis- 
'^  sioned  officer  and  authorized  agent,  with  a  corps  of 
"  regulars  at  his  heels,  attempting  to  dragoon  and  over- 
"awe  the  constituted  authorities  of  an  independent 
"  State,  and  on  the  eve  of  a  great  election,  amid  the 
"  distractions  of  party,  taking  side  with  the  one  polit- 
"  ical  party  against  the  other,  and  addressing  election- 
"  eering  papers  almost  weekly  to  the  chief  magistrate 
*^  through  the  public  prints,  couched  in  language  of  con- 
"  tumely  and  insult  and  defiance,  and  for  which,  were 
"  I  to  send  him  to  you  in  chains  I  would  transgress 
"  nothing  of  the  public  law."  In  conclusion  the  Gov- 
ernor said,  "  I  demand,  therefore,  as  chief  magistrate  of 
"  Georgia,  his  immediate  recall,  and  his  arrest,  trial  and 
"  punishment,  under  the  rules  and  articles  of  war." 

The  President  replied  through  the  Secretary  of  War 
that  he  could  not  accede  to  the  demand  for  Gaines' 
arrest ;  but  at  the  same  time  sent  a  letter  of  rebuke  to 
the  General. 

Upon  the  assembling  of  Congress,  President  Adams 
rehearsed  in  his  message  the  events  connected  with 
the  Indian  Springs  treaty.     He  said  that  happily  dis- 


136      THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

tributed  as  the  sovereign  powers  of  the  people  of  this 
Union  have  been  between  their  General  and  State  gov- 
ernments, their  history  has  already  too  often  pre- 
sented collisions  between  these  divided  authorities  with 
regard  to  the  extent  of  their  respective  powers.  No 
instance,  however,  had  hitherto  occurred  in  which  this 
collision  had  been  urged  into  a  conflict  of  actual  force. 
No  other  case  was  known  to  have  happened  in  which 
the  application  of  military  force  by  the  Government  of 
the  Union  had  been  prescribed  for  the  enforcement  of 
a  law,  the  violation  of  which  had,  within  any  single 
State,  been  prescribed  by  a  legislative  act  of  the  State. 
In  the  present  instance  he  held  it  to  be  his  duty,  if  the 
State  of  Georgia  still  persisted  in  making  a  survey  of 
the  Indian  lands,  to  enforce  the  law  and  fulfil  the  duties 
of  the  nation  by  all  the  force  committed  for  that  pur- 
pose to  his  charge. 

Upon  the  convening  of  the  General  Assembly  of 
Georgia,  Governor  Troup  held  no  less  decided  language. 
The  Committee  on  Relations  with  the  Federal  Govern- 
ment submitted  a  report  in  which  the  complaints  of 
Georgia  were  fairly  and  forcibly  set  out.  "  We  have 
"  been  insulted,"  they  said,  "by  petty  agents;  we  have 
"  been  brow-beaten  and  derided  by  Indians.  Our 
"  chief  magistrate  at  home  and  our  Representatives  in 
"  Congress,  while  in  the  public  service  and  under  the 
"  very  eye  of  the  General  Government,  have  been  com- 
"  pelled  to  brook  the  insolence  of  half-breeds  ;  we  have 
"  been  prevented,  nay,  ordered  to  desist  from  surveying 
"  our  own  lands  when  no  possible  harm  could  ensure, 
"  and  when,  too,  the  General  Government  undei'  pre- 
"  cisely  similar  circumstances  was  carrying  on  its  own 
"  surveys  among  Indians  unremoved  from  recently  ac- 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.  13t 

"  quired  lands,  a  privilege  heretofore  uninterruptedly 
"  enjoyed  by  every  new  frontier  State,  and  questioned 
"  only  for  the  first  time  in  the  case  of  Georgia,  one  of 
"  the  original  thirteen  States  ;  we  have  had  our  Indian 
"  aUies — those  who  long  defended  Georgia  from  the 
"  tomahawk  of  the  very  Indians  who  are  now  so  high  in 
"  favor — murdered  in  cold  blood,  their  families  exiled 
"  from  home,  made  wanderers  and  outcasts  from  the 
"  very  country  which  but  nine  years  ago  was  declared 
"  to  be  exclusively  theirs,  under  the  plighted  faith  and 
''  solemnly  written  guaranty  of  the  General  Govern- 
"  ment,  and  all  these  misfortunes,  cruelties  and  hard- 
"  ships,  they  have  been  destined  to  endure  from  no 
"  other  cause,  as  we  verily  believe,  than  that  of  being 
"  the  unswerving  friends  of  Georgia." 

The  resolutions  of  the  committee  maintained,  1st, 
that  Georgia  owns  exclusively  the  soil  and  jurisdiction 
of  all  her  territory,  and  with  the  exception  of  the  right 
to  regulate  commerce  among  the  Indian  tribes,  .claims 
the  right  to  exercise  over  any  people,  white  or  red, 
within  those  limits,  the  authority  of  her  laws  ;  2d,  that 
threatening  a  State  with  an  armed  force  and  actually 
stationing  troops  upon  her  borders  is  contrary  to  the 
spirit  and  genius  of  our  Government — a  fundamental 
principle  of  which  is  that  the  military  is  subordinate  to 
the  civil  authority ;  3d,  that  the  President's  protest 
against  the  survey  is  an  instance  of  dictation  and  Fed- 
eral supremacy  unwarranted  by  any  grant  of  power  to 
the  General  Government. 

In  the  meantime  President  Adams  went  to  the  length 
of  declaring  the  Indian  Springs  treaty  null  and  void, 
and  proceeded  to  negotiate  a  new  treaty  with  certain  of 
the  hostile  Creek  chiefs  at  Washington.  By  this  second 


138      THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

treaty  the  removal  of  the  Creeks  would  be  only  partial, 
and  the  boundary  of  Georgia  somewhat  restricted.  The 
State  protested  against  this  new  treaty.  A  collision 
appeared  imminent.  The  surveyors  appointed  by  the 
General  Assembly  were  ordered  to  be  on  the  ground  by 
a  certain  day,  and  at  sunrise  to  commence  their  work. 
Governor  Troup  had  classified  the  militia,  and  ordered 
his  generals  to  hold  themselves  in  readiness  to  take 
the  field.  General  Gaines  was  ready  with  the  Federal 
forces  to  meet  those  of  the  State. 

Fortunately,  in  the  army  of  Gaines  were  three 
Georgians  devoted  to  their  State,  and  connected  with 
some  of  her  most  distinguished  people:  Col.  David  E. 
Twiggs,  Col.  John  S.  McIntosh,  and  Col.  Duncan 
Clinch.  Zachary  Taylor  was  Lieutenant-Colonel  of 
Clinch's  regiment.  All  of  these  men  were  ardently 
Southern.  The  three  Georgians  wrote  to  the  President 
tendering  their  commissions  if  ordered  to  take  arms 
against  Georgia.  This  letter  was  sent  to  Washington 
by  a  person  who  had  much  influence  with  Mr.  Adams; 
and  it  is  said  that  the  representations  made  by  this 
person  as  to  the  temper  of  the  Southern  people,  and 
particularly  of  the  Federal  army  officers  of  Southern 
birth,  was  such  as  to  induce  him  to  change  his  policy, 
and  to  acquiesce  in  the  claims  of  Georgia,  under  cover 
of  a  new  treaty.  The  new  treaty  was  in  substance  the 
old  treaty  so  far  as  Georgia  was  concerned,  and  it  was 
finally  confirmed  by  the  Senate — the  Georgia  Senators 
voting  against  it;  but  the  State  of  Georgia,  without 
regard  to  the  proceedings  at  Washington,  continued 
the  survey  and  took  and  held  possession  of  all  the  lands 
ceded  by  the  Indian  Springs  treaty.  The  treaty  of 
Washington  was  simply  a  pretext  to  enable  the  Presi- 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.      139 

dent  to  escape  from  his  coercive  policy.  Its  terms  were 
never  intended  to  be  carried  out,  and  were  never  re- 
garded by  the  State,  except "  so  far  as  they  conformed 
to  the  former  treaty. 

To  cap  the  cHmax  of  the  triumph  of  Governor 
Troup,  it  was  proven  that  those  immaculate  friends  of 
the  red  man  who  had  denounced  and  sought  to  annul 
the  Indian  Springs  treaty  on  the  ground  of  bribery  and 
corruption,  had  actually  secured  the  Washington  treaty 
by  giving  bribes  to  the  leading  hostile  Indians.  Mr. 
Benton,  in  his  "  Thirty  Years  in  the  United  States 
"  Senate,"  has  given  an  interesting  account  of  the 
manner  in  which  he  made  the  discovery  that  the  war 
department  had  agreed  to  divide  one  hundred  and  sixty 
thousand  dollars  among  the  murderers  of  McIntosh,  in 
order  to  induce  them  to  do  what  they  alleged  they  had 
slain  McIntosh  for  consenting  to  do  Mr.  Benton  says: 
"  When  the  President  sent  in  the  treaty  of  January, 
"  and  after  its  rejection  by  the  Senate  became  certain, 
'^  thereby  leaving  the  Federal  Government  and  Georgia 
"  upon  the  point  of  collision,  I  urged  upon  Mr.  James 
"Barbour,  the  Secretary  of  War  (of  whose  depart- 
"  ment  the  Indian  office  vvas  then  a  branch),  the  neces- 
"  sity  of  a  supplemental  treaty  ceding  all  the  Creek 
^'  lands  in  Georgia ;  and  assured  him  that  with  that 
"  additional  article,  the  treaty  would  be  ratified  and  the 
"  question  settled.  The  secretary  was  very  willing  to 
"  do  all  this,  but  said  it  was  impossible — that  the  chiefs 
'^  would  not  agree  to  it.  I  recommended  to  him  to 
"make  them  some  presents,  so  as  to  overcome  their 
"  opposition,  which  he  most  innocently  dechned,  as  it 
"  would  savor  of  bribery.  In  the  meantime  it  had 
"  been  communicated  to  me  that  the  treaty  already 


14^      THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

*'made  was  itself  the  work  of  great  bribery;  the  sum 
"  of  $160,000  out  of  $247,000,  which  it  stipulated  to 
"  the  Creek  Nation,  as  a  first  payment,  being  a  fund  for 
"  private  distribution  among  the  chiefs  who  negotiated 
"  it.  Having  received  this  information  I  felt  sure  that 
"  fear  of  the  rejection  of  the  treaty  and  the  consequent 
"  loss  of  these  $1dO,000  to  the  negotiating  chiefs  would 
"  insure  their  assent  to  the  supplemental  article  without 
"  the  inducement  of  other  presents.  I  had  an  inter- 
"  view  with  the  leading  chiefs,  and  made  known  to  them 
"  the  inevitable  fact  that  the  Senate  would  reject  the 
"treaty  as  it  stood,  but  would  ratify  it  with  a  supple- 
"  mental  article  ceding  all  their  lands  in  Georgia.  With 
"  this  information  they  agreed  to  the  additional  article, 
"  and  then  the  whole  was  ratified  as  I  have  already 
"stated." 

Thus  it  was  that  President  Adams  negotiated  a  treaty 
with  the  hostile  chiefs,  which  was  the  counterpart  of 
that  made  with  the  friendly  chiefs,  except  that  the 
Indians  were  not  to  remove  from  a  small  part  of  the 
Georgia  territory  included  in  the  former  treaty.  The 
hostile  chiefs  were  bribed  to  accede  to  it,  and  when 
their  appetite  was  whetted  for  the  bribe  money,  almost 
in  their  grasp,  the  bags  of  gold  were  held  up  beyond 
their  reach  until  they  had  ceded  every  acre  of  Georgia 
territory.  What  then  ?  Were  the  shameful  terms  of 
the  compact  held  good  by  the  high  contracting  parties  ? 
One  would  suppose  there  would  be  honor  between  briber 
and  bribed.  Not  so  in  this  case.  Mr.  Benton  con- 
tinues the  narrative  in  the  most  ingenuous  manner : 

"  But  a  further  work  remained  behind.  It  was  to 
"  balk  the  fraud  of  the  corrupt  distribution  of  $160,000 
'^ among  a  few  chiefs;  and  that  was  to  be  done  in  the 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.      141 

"  appropriation  bill,  and  by  a  clause  directing  the  whole 
"  treaty  money  to  be  paid  to  the  Nation  instead  of  the 
"  chiefs.  The  case  was  communicated  to  the  Senate  in 
"  secret  session,  and  a  committee  of  conference  was  ap- 
"  pointed  (Messrs.  Benton,  Van^uren  and  Berrien) 
"  to  agree  with  the  House  committee  upon  the  proper 
"  clause  to  be  put  into  the  appropriation  bill.  It  was 
"  also  communicated  to  the  Secretary  of  War.  He 
"  sent  in  a  report  from  Mr.  McKinney,  the  Indian 
''  Bureau  clerk,  and  actual  negotiator  of  the  treaty, 
"  admitting  the  fact  of  the  intended  private  distribu- 
"  tion ;  which  in  fact  could  not  be  denied,  as  I  held  an 
"  original  paper  showing  the  names  of  all  the  intended 
"  recipients  with  the  sum  allowed  to  each,  beginning  at 
"  $20,000  and  ranging  down  to  $5,000,  and  that  it 
"  was  done  with  his  cognizance.." 

The  Indian  Springs  treaty  ceded  all  the  Creek  lands 
in  Georgia,  and  to  the  Coosa  river  in  Alabama ;  but 
the  Washington  treaty  ceded  simply  the  Georgia  lands. 
Georgia  came  out  of  the  controversy  with  all  she  had 
ever  demanded.  It  was  Alabama  that  suffered.  While 
the  Governor  of  Georgia  had  exhausted  the  argument 
and  was  standing  by  his  arms,  the  Governor  of  Ala- 
bama was  content  simply  to  advise  the  gentle  savage 
that  to  civihze  a  people  from  a  rude  and  barbarous  con- 
dition they  should  be  removed  from  the  influence  of 
the  vices  and  luxuries  which  prevail  in  civilized  life ; 
and  that  the  provinces  farthest  removed  from  the  vices, 
refinements  and  luxuries  of  Rome  made  the  most  solid 
progress  in  civilization.  In  this  whole  difficulty  with 
the  Creeks,  beyond  a  simple  resolution  instructing  her 
members  in  Congress  to  use  their -best  efibrts  to  procure 
for  Alabama  the  immediate  execution  of  the  Indian 
Springs  treaty,  nothing  was  done  to  assert,  prosecute 
or  defend  her  rights  thereunder-    And  thus  the  fairest 


142      THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

pai-t  of  Alabama  remained  in  the  hands  of  savages  for 
twelve  years  longer. 

Although  the  Creeks  had  been  removed,  and  the 
country  opened  up  to  civihzation  between  the  Oconee  and 
Chattahoochee,  there  yet  remained  ten  thousand  Chero- 
kees  in  Georgia.  The  Cherokee  country  of  Georgia 
is  one  of  the  most  fertile,  healthful  and  beautiful  on  the 
western  continent.  The  Indians  were  greatly  attached 
to  it,  especially  as  under  the  teachings  of  Jefferson 
they  had  adopted  many  of  the  methods  of  civilized 
Ufe.  Had  the  plans  of  that  wise  philanthropist  been  left 
undisturbed,  the  Indian  tribes  would  eventually  have 
become  useful  c'tizens  of  the  States ;  but  the  desire  of 
the  Federal  pafty  to  keep  those  of  this  section  as  a 
breastwork  against  Southern  advance,  created  recip- 
rocal hostility  between  the  white  man  and  the  red  man, 
and  finally  defeated  every  scheme  for  their  culture. 

The  Georgians  having  overrun  the  lands  of  the 
Greek,  now  turned  wistful  eyes  to  the  lands  of  the 
Cherokee.  Did  the  Federal  Government  have  no  inten- 
tention  to  extinguish  the  Cherokee  title  in  accordance 
with  the  cession  of  1802  ?  Twenty-five  years  had  now 
elapsed  since  that  cession,  and  Georgia  witnessed  the 
same  delay  which  almost  plunged  the  State  into  hos- 
tilities with  the  Federal  Government  in  the  case  of  the 
Creeks.  Not  only  was  no  step  being  taken  for  re- 
moval of  the  Cherokees,  but  the  poUcy  of  President 
Adams  and  his  friends  appeared  more  pronounced  in 
this  case  than  in  the  other.  Every  effort  was  being 
put  forth  by  the  administration^to  fasten  the  Cherokees 
to  the  soil,  by  instructing  them  in  those  peacefiil  avo- 
cations which  strengthen  the  attachments  of  family  and 
home. 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDEEACY.      143 

Georgia  by  a  law  of  December  20,  1828,  added  all 
of  the  Cherokee  territory  lying  within  her  Umits  to 
certain  counties  of  the  State,  and  extended  over  it  her 
criminal  jurisdiction.  The  object  of  this  law,  and  of  a 
subsequent  one  passed  in  the  following  year,  was  to 
parcel  out  the  territory  of  the  Cherokees,  to  subject  it 
to  the  laws  of  Georgia,  to  abolish  the  Cherokee  laws, 
to  make  it  murder  for  a  death  sentence  to  be  executed 
under  Cherokee  law,  and  to  authorize  the  use  of  the 
Georgia  miHtia  in  executing  all  processes  over  the  Cher- 
okee territory.  The  Cherokees  sent  a  delegation  to 
Washington,  which  presented  to  the  President  a  protest 
against  the  encroachments  of  the  (^eorgians;  but  Mr. 
Adams,  just  on  the  eve  of  retiring  from  office,  took  no 
action  in  the  matter. 

The  views  of  the  party  opposed  to  the  Adams  theory 
of  government  were  well  expressed  in  the  first  annual 
message  of  President  Jackson.  He  called  the  atten- 
tion of  Congress  to  the  fact  that  the  Indian  tribes  had 
lately  attempted  to  erect  an  independent  government 
within  the  limits  of  Georgia  and  Alabama.  These 
S'tates  claiming  to  be  the  only  sovereigns  within  their 
territories,  had  extended  their  laws  over  the  Indians, 
and  the  latter  had  called  upon  the  United  States  to  in- 
terpose between  the  tribe  and  the  State.  Under  these 
circumstances  the  question  presented  was,  whether  the 
General  Government  had  a  right  to  sustain  the  tribe  in 
their  pretensions  ?  The  Constitution  declares  that  "  no 
"  new  State  shall  be  formed  or  erected  within  the  juris- 
"  diction  of  another  State  "  without  the  consent  of  its 
Legislature.  If  the  General  Governnient  is  not  per- 
mitted to  tolerate  the  erection  of  a  confederate  State 
within  the  territory  of  one  of  the  members  of  the 


144      THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDE*BACY. 

Union,  against  her  consent,  much  less,  said  President 
Jackson,  could  it  allow  a  foreign  and  independent  gov- 
ernment to  establish  itself  there.  Georgia  became  a 
member  of  the  confederacy,  which  resulted  in  our 
Federal  Union,  as  a  sovereign  State,  always  asserting 
her  claim  to  certain  limits,  which  having  been  origin- 
ally defined  in  her  colonial  charter,  and  subsequently 
recognized  in  the  treaty  of  peace,  she  has  ever  since 
continued  to  enjoy,  except  as  they  have  been  circum- 
scribed by  her  own  voluntary  transfer  of  a  portion  of 
her  territory  to  the  United  States  in  the  cession  of 
1802.  Alabama  was  admitted  into  the  Union  on  the 
same  footing  with  the  original  States,  with  boundaries 
which  were  prescribed  by  Congress.  There  is,  said  the 
message,  no  constitutional,  conventional,  nor  legal  pro- 
vision which  allows  them  less  power  over  the  Indians 
within  their  borders  than  is  possessed  by  Maine  or 
New  York.  Would  the  people  of  Maine  permit  the 
Penobscot  tribe  to  erect  an  independent  government 
within  their  State  ?  And  if  they  did,  would  it  not  be 
the  duty  of  the  General  Government  to  aid  the  State 
in  resisting  such  an  an  attempt  ?  Would  the  people  of 
New  York  permit  each  remnant  of  the  six  nations 
within  her  borders  to  declare  itself  an  independent 
people  under  the  protection  of  the  United  States  ? 
Could  the  Indians  establish  a  separate  republic  on 
each  of  their  reservations  in  Ohio  ?  And  if  they  were 
•so  disposed,  would  it  be  the  duty  of  the  Federal  Gov- 
ernment to  sustain  them?  "  If,"  said  General  Jackson, 
"  the  principle  involved  in  the  obvious  answer  to  these 
"  questions  be  abandoned,  it  will  follow  that  the  objects 
"  of  this  Government  are  reversed ;   and  that  it  has 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.      145 

*'  become  a  part  of  its  duty  to  aid  in  destroying  the 
"  States  which  it  was  established  to  protect." 

Actuated  by  this  view  of  the  subject,  President  Jack- 
son, reversing  the  policy  of  his  predecessor,  informed 
the  Indians  inhabiting  parts  of  Georgia  and  Alabama, 
that  their  attempt  to  establish  an  independent  govern- 
ment would  not  be  countenanced  by  the  executive  of 
the  United  States,  and  advised  them  either  to  emigrate 
beyond  the  Mississippi  or  submit  to  the  laws  of  the 
State.  Instead  of  bribing  the  Indian  chiefs  and  going 
through  the  absurd  formality  of  treating  with  them  as 
independent  nations,  the  President  called  upon  Con- 
gress for  the  passage  of  an  act  to  enable  him  to  provide 
for  their  removal.  Upon  this  proposition  the  two  parties 
arrayed  themselves.  The  Representatives  in  Congress 
from  the  Southern  States,  aided  by  a  few  votes  from 
the  North,  succeeded  in  enacting  such  a  law  as  the 
President  requested.  The  opposition  was  led  by  Mr. 
Frelinghuysen,  in  the  Senate,  and  with  him  was  found 
nearly  all  the  Northern  Senators. 

The  Indians,  instigated  by  the  half-breeds  and  mis- 
sionaries who  incHned  to  the  Federal  party,  took  counsel 
and  legal  advice  with  a  view  to  get  the  question  into 
the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States.  William 
Wirt,  late  Attorney  General,  was  retained  as  their 
counsel.  George  R.  Gilmer  was  then  Governor  of 
Georgia.  As  soon  as  it  became  evident  that  the  Indian 
Bill,  as  proposed  by  the  President  would  become  law, 
the  Cherokees  were  persuaded  that  the  right  of  self- 
government  could  be  secured  to  them  by  the  power  of 
the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States,  in  defiance  of 
the  legislature  of  the  State  and  National  Government. 
At  that  time  the  idea  does  not  appear  to  have  hem  eu^ 


146      THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDEEACY. 

tertained  by  Wirt  or  by  his  cotemporaries  of  the  Fed- 
eral school  of  pontics,  that  in  the  event  the  Supreme 
Court  might  show  an  inclination  to  interfere,  that  august 
tribunal  might  be  brought  to  terms  by  an  act  of  Con- 
gress curtailing  its  powers  or  increasing  its  members. 

Judge  A.  S.  CLA.YTON  of  Georgia,  in  whose  circuit 
the  Indian  counties  lay,  in  his  charge  to  the  grand 
jury,  assured  the  Indians  of  protection  from  the  State, 
warned  them  against  the  intermeddhng  agents  and  mis- 
sionaries who  used  their  fnfluence  improperly  in  govern- 
mental matters,  and  predicted  the  futility  of  applying 
for  relief  to  the  Supreme  Court.  With  respect  to  those 
who  had  counselled  resistance  to  the  State  law,  he  said  : 
'^  Meetings  have  been  held  in  all  directions  to  express 
"  opinions  on  the  conduct  of  Georgia,  and  of  Georgia 
"alone,"  when  her  adjoining  sister  States  had  safely  done 
precisely  the  same  thing ;  and  which  she  and  they  had 
done  in  the  rightful  exercise  of  theu'  fetate  sovereignty. 
The  judge  showed  that  one  of  those  intrusive  philan- 
thropists had  endeavored  to  enlist  European  sympathy 
in  behalf  of  the  Cherokees ;  and  quoted  from  the  ad- 
dress of  the  Reve.rend  Mr.  Milner  of  New  York,  to 
the  Foreign  Missionary  Society  of  London :  "  That 
"  if  the  cause  of  the  negroes  in  the  West  Indies  was 
''  interesting  to  that  auditory — and  deeply  interesting 
'^  it  ought  to  be — it  the  population  in  Ireland,  groaning 
"  beneath  the  degradation  of  superstition,  excited  their 
*'  sympathies,  he  trusted  the  Indians  of  North  America 
"  would  also  be  considered  as  the  objects  of  their  Christian 
"  regards.  He  was  grieved,  however,  to  state  that  there 
were  those  in  America  who  acted  towards  them  in  a 
different  spirit ;  and  he  lamented  to  say,  at  this  very 
nioment,  the  State  of  Gegrgia  was  seeking  to  subjugate 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  OONFEDERACY.      147 

"and  destroy  the  liberties  both  of  the  Creeks  and 
"  Cherokees."  Thus  was  it  sought  to  defame  a 
Southern  State  which  was  simply  seeking  to  extend  its 
laws  throughout  its  limits  as  had  been  done  by  every 
]Mort!)ern  and  Eastern  State  which  had  dealt  with  the 
Indians  within  its  borders.  And  so'  ignorant  was 
this  pseudo  philanthropist  of  what  he  was  discussing 
that  he  seemed  not  to  know  that  the  Creeks,  at  the 
time  he  was  speaking,  had  been  gone  five  years  from 
Georgia.  Instead  of  the  Cherokees,  who  still  remained, 
being  deprived  of  their  liberties,  they  were  offered  a 
large  price  for  their  lands  if  they  chose  to  remove 
across  the  Mississippi.  If  they  preferred  to  remain 
they  were  simply  to  be  subjected  to  the  same  laws  with 
the  whites.  With  respect  to  the  Supreme  Court,  Judge 
Clatton  declared  that  he  should  pay  no  attention  to  its 
mandate — holding  no  writ  of  error  to  lie  from  the  Su- 
preme Court  of  the  United  States  to  his  State  court, 
but  would  execute  the  sentence  of  the  law,  whatever  it 
might  be,  in  defiance  of  the  Supreme  Court.  This  bold 
position  of  the  Georgia  judge  was  maintained  with  the 
same  firmness  it  was  enunciated. 

A  Cherokee  half-breed,  George  Tassels,  instigated 
by  the  pohtical  opposition  to  the-  policy  of  Jackson, 
committed  a  homicide  in  resisting  the  execution  of  the 
Georgia  law.  He  was  tried  for  murder,  condemned, 
and  sentenced  to  be  executed  on  a  certain  day.  A 
writ  of  error  to  bring  the  case  before  the  United  States 
Supreme  Court  was  obtained,  and  Mr.  Wirt  endeavored 
to  secure  the  consent  of  Governor  Gilmer  that  the 
whole  question  should  rest  upon  an  agreed  statement  of 
facts.  Governor  Gilmer  replied :  "  Your  suggestion 
"  that  it  would  be  convenient  and  satislactory  if  your- 


148  THE  CRADLE.  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.     ' 

"  self,  the  Indians  and  the  Governor  could  make  up  a 
"  law  case  to  be  submitted  to  the  Supreme  Court  for 
"  the  determination  of  the  question  whether  the  Legis- 
"lature  of  Georgia  has  competent  authority  to  pass 
"  laws  for  the  government  of  the  Indians  residing 
"  within  its  limits,  however  courteous  the  manner  and 
''  conciliatory  the  phraseology,  cannot  but  be  considered 
"  exceedingly  disrespectful  to  the  government  of  this 
*'  State.  No  one  knows  better  than  yourself  that  the 
''  Governor  would  grossly  violate  his  duty  and  exceed 
"  his  authority  by  complying  with  such  a  suggestion, 
"  and  that  both  the  letter  and  the  spirit  of  the  powers 
"  conferred  by  the  Constitution  upon  the  Supreme  Court 
*^  forbid  its  adjudging  such  a  case." 

The  proceedings  before  the  United  States  Supreme 
Court  are  of  supreme  interest  when  considered  in  rela- 
tion to  the  alleged  right  of  the  Federal  Government  to 
coerce  a  State.  Mr.  Wirt,  in  his  appHcation  for  an 
injunction  to  resti*ain  the  State,  discussed  the  question 
with  great  ardor  and  ability.  His  argument  has  been 
pronounced  the  most  brilliant  of  his  hfe.  "  The  great 
''  interest  excited  by  the  controversy,"  says  a  writer  in 
the  North  American  Review,  *^  was  naturally  to  be 
"  expected  from  th^  novelty  of  the  case,  the  dignity  of 
"  the  parties,  and  the  high  importance  of  the  principles 
"  in  question.  The  scene  wore,  in  some  degrees,  the 
"  imposing  majesty  of  those  ancient  debates,  in  which 
"  the  gTeat  father  of  Roman  eloquence  sustained  before  • 
"the  senate  the  rights  of  allied  and  dependent,  but 
"  sovereign  princes,  who  had  found  themselves  com- 
"  polled  to  seek  for  protection  and  redress  from  the 
"justice  of  the  mighty  Republic."  ^^-iss  Martineau, 
W  her  graceful  description  of  the  Court,  alludes  to  the 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.      140 

scene — "  I  have  watched  the  assemblance  when  the 
"  Chief  Justice  was  delivering  a  judgment,  the  three 
"judges  on  either  hand  gazing  at  him  more  like 
"  learners  than  associates,  Webster  standing  firm  as  a 
"  rock,  his  large,  deep  set  eyes  wide  awake,  his  lips 
"  compressed,  and  his  whole  countenance  in  that  intent 
"  stillness  which  easily  fixes  the  eye  of  the  stranger ; 
"  Clay,  leaning  against  the  desk  in  an  attitude,  whose 
"  grace  contrasts  strangely  with  the  slovenly  make  of 
"  his  dress,  his  snuff  box  for  the  moment  unopened  in 
"  his  hand,  his  small  gray  eye  and  placid  half-smile, 
"  conveying  an  expression  of  pleasure  which  redeems 
'' his  face  from  its  usual  unaccountable  commonness; 
"  the  Attorney  General,  his  fingers  playing  among  his 
"  papers,  his  quick  black  eye,  and  thin,  tremulous  hps 
"  for  once  fixed,  his  small  face  pale  with  thought,  con- 
"  trasting  remarkably  with  the  other  two.  These  men, 
"  absorbed  in  what  they  are  Hstening  to,  thinking 
"  neither  of  themselves  nor  of  each  other,  while  they 
"  are  watched  by  the  group  of  idlers  and  listeners 
"  around  them :  the  newspaper  corps,  the  dark  Chero- 
"  kee  chiefs,  the  stragglers  from  the  far  West,  the  gay 
"  ladies  in  their  waving  plumes,  and  the  members  of 
"  either  House  that  have  stepped  in  to  listen ;  all  these 
''  I  have  seen  constitute  one  silent  assemblage,  while 
"the  mild  voice  of  the  aged  Chief  Justice  sounded 
"  through  the  Court." 

At  the  outset  of  the  case,  was  suggested  the  diffi- 
culty as  to  how  the  injunction  was  to  be  enforced  in 
the  event  it  should  be  awarded  and  the  State  should 
refuse  to  obey.  "  Ifc  will  be  time  enough,"  said  Mr. 
Wirt,  *'  to  meet  the  question  when  it  shall  arise." 

Chief  Justice  Marshall,  ever  ambitious  to  make  the 


u 


150      THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

Supreme  Court  the  arbiter  of  all  constitutional  ques- 
tions, and  by  the  force  of  former  political  association 
ever  leaning  to  the  views  of  the  Federal  party,  held 
that  the  Court  had  full  jurisdiction  to  pronounce  upon 
the  vahdity  of  the  Georgia  laws.  The  Court  declared 
the  Cherokee  Nation  a  distinct  community,  occupying 
its  own  territory,  with  boundaries  accurately  described, 
and  in  which  the  laws  of  Georgia  could  have  no  force. 
It  declared  void  the  act  of  Georgia,  under  which  the 
plaintiff  in  error  was  pi'osecuted,  that  the  judgment  of 
the  State  Court  was  a  nullity,  and  that  the  plaintiff 
"was  entitled  to  the  protection  of  the  Constitution, 
"  laws  and  treaties  of  his  country." 

Thereupon  arose  the  question,  how  was  this  decision 
to  be  enforced  ?  Could  the  United  States  coerce  a 
State  ? 

The  State  of  Georgia  treated  the  decision  as  a 
nullity.  No  further  action  was  taken  by  the  Supreme 
Court ;  no  effort  made  to  enforce  its  decision.  Chief 
Justice  Marshall  and  his  associateSj  by  non-action, 
tacitly  admitted  that  the  United  States  had  no  consti- 
tutional power  to  enforce  a  decision  against  a  sovereign 
State. 

The  State  of  Georgia  did  not  appear  as  a  party  to 
these  proceedings.  The  Chief  Justice  cited  the  State 
by  writ  of  error  "  to  show  cause,  if  any  there  be,  why 
"  the  judgment  [of  the  State  Court]  should  not  be 
"  corrected;"  The  Governor  laid  the  writ  before  the 
General  Assembly,  saying  that  he  would  not  regard 
commands  of  the  Federal  Court  which  interfered  with 
the  constitutional  jurisdiction  of  the  State,  and  would 
oppose  any  attempt  to  execute  them.  The  General 
Assembly  sustained  the  Governor,  and  adopted  a  series 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONPEDERACY.      151 

of  resolutions  to  the  eiFect  that  the  action  of  the  Chief 
Justice  of  the  United  States  was  "  a  flagrant  violation 
"  of  the  rights  of  the  State ; "  that  the  Governor 
should  pay  no  attention  to  the  mandate ;  but  that  he 
was  bound  "  to  resist  and  repel  any  and  every  inva- 
"  sion,  from  whatever  quarter,  upon  the  administration 
"  of  the  criminal  laws  "  of  the  State,  with  all  the  "  force 
"  and  means  "  entrusted  to  him  by  the  laws  of  Georgia. 
They  declared  that  "  the  l^tate  of  Georgia  will  never  so 
"  far  compromise  her  sovereignty  as  an  independent 
'^  State,  as  to  become  a  party  to  a  case  sought  to  be 
"  made  before  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States 
"by  the  writ  in  question,"  and  that  the  Governor 
should  acquaint  the  sheriff  of  Hall  county  with  these 
resolutions,  as  far  as  was  necessary  to  ensure  the  iiill 
execution  of  the  laws  in  the  case  of  George  Tassels. 
The  sentence  of  the  State  court  was  executed  by  the 
hanging  of  Tassels,  Dec.  28,  1830. 

Depending  upon  a  statement  of  G.  N.  Briggs  of 
Massachusetts,  who  was  at  the  time  a  member  of  Con- 
gress, Greeley,  in  "  The  A  merican  Conflict,"  vol.  I,  p. 
106,  relates  that  President  Jackson  said:  ^' John 
"  Marshall  has  made  his  decision ;  now  let  him  enforce 
"  it !  " 

In  accordance  with  the  Georgia  law  of  December  22, 
1830,  a  missionary  named  Worcester,  with  other  white 
persons  who  persisted  in  disobeying  the  statute,  was 
sentenced  to  four  years'  imprisonment  at  hard  labor. 
Worcester  took  the  case  before  the  Supreme  Court  of 
the  United  States,  and  the  State  of  Georgia  was  once 
more  cited  to  appear  at  Washington,  before  the  Federal 
judiciary.  Governor  Lumpkin  informed  the  Legislature 
that  he  would   present  a   "determined  resistance "  to 


162      THE  CRADLE  OP  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

such  "usurpation."  The  Supreme  Court  once  more 
attempted  to  annul  the  action  of  the  State,  but  the 
State  court  refused  to  grant  a  writ  of  habeas  corpus, 
and  paid  no  attention  to  the  decision.  No  effort  was 
ever  made  by  the  Federal  Government  to  enforce  the 
decision. 

The  Government  at  Washington  and  the  country  at 
large,  by  acquiescing  in  the  failure  of  the  Federal  Gov- 
ernment to  carry  out  the  mandate  of  the  Federal  court, 
admitted  that  Georgia  had  the  right  to  extinguish  any 
title  to  her  lands  remaining  in  the  occupancy  of  the 
savages,  that  she  was  right  in  refusing  to  appear  at  the 
bar  of  the  Supreme  Court,  and  right  in  executing  her 
statutes  in  these  cases,  notwithstanding  interference 
from  the  Federal  Government.  In  the  debate  over  the 
Force  Bill,  in  1833,  two  years  later  than  the  events 
here  referred  to,  we  find  the  verdict  of  the  people  ex- 
pressed in  the  language  of  Senator  Miller  of  South 
CaroHna.  "No  reproof  of  her  [Georgia's]  refractory 
"  spirit  was  heard ;  on  the  contrary,  a  learned  review  of 
"  the  decision  came  out  attributed  to  executive  coun- 
*'  tenance  and  favor."  It  is  to  be  borne  in  mind  that 
the  executive  alluded  to  was  the  same  who  one  year 
later,  proposed  at  a  pubhc  dinner  at  Washington,  the 
toast,  "  The  Federal  Union,  it  must  be  preserved." 


CHAPTER  VII. 


South  Carolina  and  the  Tariff— Continued'  Contest  between 
the  Agricultural  and  Commercial  States — Calhoun  and 
Nullification — The  Force  Bill  and  the  Bight  of  Coer- 
cion— Inconsistency  of  President  JacTcson — GaUiounh 
Victory  Webster  Betires  from  the  Battle — Beal  Causes 
Jor  the  Proclamation,  cfcc,  (&c. 


"  Why  should  we  fetter  commerce  ?  If  a  man  Is  In  chains,  he  droops 
and  bows  to  the  earth ,  because  his  spirits  are.  broken  ;  but  let  lilm  twist 
the  fetters  from  his  legs  and  he  will  stand  erect.  Fetter  not  commerce ! 
Let  her  be  as  free  as  the  air.  She  will  range  the  whole  creation,  and  re- 
turn on  the  four  winds  of  Hearen,  to  bless  the  land  with  plenty." 

Patrick  Henry. 


"To  the  Northern  politician,  who,  during  Monroe's  administration 
recalled  the  past  annals  of  the  republic,  the  future  was  without  hope. 
Incited  by  his  devotion  to  Unionism,  he  had  tried  to  strengthen  the  cen- 
tral power  at  Washington,  but  had  been  defeated  on  the  occasion  of  the 
Alien  and  Sedition  Acts;  he  had  looked  with  disfavor  upon  the  free 
navigation  of  the  Mississippi,  but  the  river  had  been  bought;  lie  was  dis- 
inclined to  territorial  expansion,  but  Louisiana  had  been  purchased  ;  he 
had  resisted. the  admission  of  new  States  from  that  purcliase,  but  one 
after  another,  they  were  coming  in." 

Draper's  Civil  War,  vol.  I,  p.  360. 


While  the  difficulty  between  Georgia  and  the  Federal 
Government  was  still  pending,  the  people  of  the  United 
States,  by  a  large  majority,  threw  off  the  remaining 
vestiges  of  Federalism  as  represented  by  Adams,  and 
elected  Andrew  Jackson  to  the  Presidency  by  an  elec- 
toral vote  of  one  hundred  and  eighty-three,  as  against 
eighty-three  for  Adams.  It  is  worthy  of  observation, 
however,  that  the  victory  of  Jackson  was  not  strictly 
upon  principle.  In  New  iork,  Pennsylvania,  and  in 
the  West  generally,  Jackson  was  supported  as  the  firm 


154      THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

friend  of  the  protective  tariff,  and  of  internal  improve- 
ments by  the  General  Government;  whereas,  in  the 
South  he  was  zealously  sustained  by  those  who  denied 
the  right  and  constitutionality  of  those  things,  as  being 
the  friend  of  those  Southern  interests  which  were 
believed  by  them  to  be  seriously  injured  by  the  laws 
protecting  home  industry. 

The  new  President's  inaugural  address  was  extremely 
vague  upon  the  question  of  the  tariff.  His  first  annual 
message  was  not  much  more  explicit.  It  favored  a 
modification  of  the  protective  features  of  the  tariff,  but 
at  the  same  time  suggested  that  a  desire  for  successful 
competition  of  American  products  with  foreign  should 
furnish  "  the  general  rule  to  be  applied  in  graduating 
"  the  duties."  The  friends  of  Calhoun  lost  confidence 
in  the  purpose  of  President  Jackson  to  carry  out  the 
free  trade  views  upon  which  thev  had  voted  for  him. 

The  first  protective  tariff,  that  of  1816,  was  advo- 
cated by  Calhoun  and  opposed  by  Webster.  It  was  at 
that  time  believed  that  the  South  would  esbiblish  fac- 
tories, and  that  the  building  ot*  this  Chinese  wall  around 
New  England  would  destroy  her  carrying  trade.  The 
question  of  principle  was  lost  sight  of;  and  policy  alone 
attached  Calhoun  to  a  doctrine  which  he  afterwards 
condemned,  and  caused  Webster  to  advocate  free  trade, 
which  his  section  a  few  years  later  repudiated.  Between 
1816  and  1824,  New  England  took  advantage  of  the 
tariff  and  invested  largely  in  factories.  In  1824  the 
protective  system  was  championed  by  Henry  Clay,  and 
still  resisted  by  Daniel  Webster.  Virginia,  the  Caro- 
linas,  Georgia  and  the  Southwest  were  unanimous 
against  it,  while  Pennsylvania,  New  York,  Ohio  and 
Kentucky   were   unanimous   for   it.       Massachusetts, 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.      155 

under  the  lead  of  Webster,  gave  all  her  votes  except 
one  against  it.  It  was  not  until  four  years  later  that 
Webster  gave  in  his  adhesion  to  the  American  system 
of  Clay. 

In  1828  the  question  had  assumed  a  most  serious 
sectional  aspect.  When  Jefferson "  was  President,  the 
maritime  States  of  the  North  had  bitterly  opposed  the 
embargo  laws,  which  virtually  kept  their  ships  rotting 
at  the  wharves.  They  boldly  declared  that  the  enforce- 
ment of  the  embargo  was  adequate  cause  for  dissolution 
of  the  Union.  But  now,  in  1828,  and  in  1830,  they 
favored  a  protective  tariff,  which  operated  upon  the  agri- 
cultural States  as  the  embargo  had  upon  the  maritime 
States.  Its  operation  was  claimed  to  be  even  more 
severe.  No  one  pretended  that  it  was  simply  a  tariff 
for  revenue.  It  was  intended  to  protect  certain 
branches  of  industry  by  paying  them  a  bonus  wrung 
from  other  branches,  and  especially  from  the  agricul- 
tural labor  of  the  South.  It  was  spoken  of  as  a  Bill 
of  Abominations.  All  that  the  South  asked  was  that 
she  might  buy  her  cotton  gins,  her  ploughs,  her  hoes, 
and  her  clothing  at  moderate  and  just  prices,  and  not 
be  compelled  to  pay  a  subsidy  to  Massachusetts  for  the 
one  article,  or  to  Pennsylvania  for  another.  African 
slavery  had  made  the  South  purely  agricultural,  and 
all  agricultural  States  naturally  and  necessarily  favor 
free  trade.  Perhaps  under  other  circumstances,  how- 
ever violative  of  the  spirit  of  the  Constitution,  the 
South  might  have  found  a  protective  tariff  an  incentive 
to  manufactories  of  iron  in  Tennessee,  Georgia,  Vir- 
ginia and  Alabama,  of  cotton  goods  in  nearly  all  of 
the  Atlantic  and  Gulf  States  south  of  the  Chesapeake, 
and  of  leathern  goods  in  the  vast  pine  forests  of  the 


ife6 


THE  CTBADLE  OP  THE  CONFEDERACY. 


coast,  as  it  was  certainly  an  incentive  to  the  produc- 
tion of  sugar  in  Louisiana.  But  while  agriculture  was 
the  sole  occupation  of  the  Southern  people,  the  tariff 
fell  upon  the  cotton  States  with  crushing  burthen. 
With  one-third  of  the  population  they  paid  two-thirds 
of  the  revenue  of  the  Union. 

The  opening  of  richer  cotton  fields  in  Alabama  had 
diminished  the  value  of  land  in  South  Carolina,  and  the 
commercial  importance  of  Charleston  had  receded,  it 
was  said,  before  the  bhghting  effects  of  the  tariff. 
Within  a  few  years  past  a  thriving  foreign  commerce 
had  been  carried  on  direct  with  Europe,  but  now  the 
forty  ships  which  had  sought  the  harbor  of  Charleston 
had  all  disappeared.  The  ship  yards  had  been  broken 
up ;  the  merchants  had  become  bankrupt  or  had 
sought  other  pursuits  ;  mechanics  were  thrown  put  of 
employment,  and  the  very  streets  were  assuming  the 
silence  of  inactivity.  Said  Mr.  Hayne  :  ^"  If  we  fly 
"  from  the  city  to  the  country,  what  do  we  there  behold? 
"  fields  abandoned ;  the  hospitable  mansions  of  our 
"  fathers  d'eserted  ;  agriculture  drooping ;  our  slaves, 
"  like  their  masters,  working  harder  and  Hiring  worse ; 
"  the  planter  striving  with  unavailable  efforts  to  avert 
"  the  ruin  that  is  before  him." 

If  there  had  been  a  necessity  for  such  protection  to 
the  interests  of  one  branch  of  industry  at  the  expense 
of  another,  the  case  would  not  have  appeared  so  bad  ; 
but  it  was  shown  from  the  custom-house  books  that 
many  species  of  our  manufactures,  and  especially  those 
of  cotton,  were  going  abroad  to  distant  countries,  and 
sustaining  themselves  there  against  all  competition  and 
beyond  the  fostering  care  of  our  laws.  The  only  effect 
of  protective  duties  in  such  cases  was  clearly  to  cut  off 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  COKPEDERAOY.      157 

importations,  to  create  a  monopoly  at  home,  and  to  en- 
able manufiicturers  to  sell  their  goods  higher  to  their 
own  fellow-citizens  of  the  South  who  produced  the  raw 
material  than  to  the  distant  inhabitants  of  the  Medi- 
terranean and  of  India. 

John  C.  Calhoun  saw  very  plainly  that  the  question 
of  free  trade  was  that  which,  keeping  the  more  danger- 
ous question  of  slavery  in  the  back  ground,  was  des- 
tined to  divide  the  republic  into  two  great  parties. 
Upon  this  question  he  could  rally  the  agricultural 
Stjites  to  his  standard,  and  would  have  the  advantage 
of  fighting  on  a  higher  level  than  he  would  be  com- 
pelled to  stand  upon  were  the  issue  simply  upon  slavery. 
He  had  given  up  all  hope  that  President  Jackson  would 
aid  him  in  destroying  the  protective  system  by  ordinary 
parliamentary  measures.  On  July  26,  1831,  at  Fort 
Hill,  he  issued  an  address  to  the  people  of  South  Car- 
olina, setting  forth  the  declaration  of  the  Virginia  reso- 
lutions and  asserting  the  right  of  interposition,  '^  be  it 
*'  called  as  it  may,  State  right,  veto,  nullification  or  by 
"any  other  name."  In  1882  the  tariff  had  received 
the  sanction  of  the  President.  Calhoun  in  a  letter 
to  Governor  Hamilton  of  South  Carolina  reviewed  the 
situation  quite  elaborately  and  announced  the  doctrine 
of  nullification.  "  Nullification,"  said  he,  "  is  the  great 
"  conservative  principle  of  the  Union."  "  Not  a  pro- 
"  vision  can  be  found  in  the  Constitution  authorizing 
"  the  General  Government  to  exercise  any  control  over 
"  a  State  by  force,  by  veto,  by  judicial  process,  or  in 
"  any  other  form — a  most  important  omission,  designed 
"  and  not  accidental "  That  Calhoun  regarded  nullifi- 
cation as  a  peaceful  remedy  appears  throughout  his 
letter.    The  calling  out  of  the  military  power  of  thQ 


168      THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

Union,  he  said,  would  be  useless  because  no  opponents 
would  be  found,  for  "  it  would  be  *  ''^  *  a  con« 
"  flict  of  moral,  not  physical  force."  He  insisted  that 
the  legal  relation  between  the  Federal  and  State  gov- 
ernments would  not  be  broken  up. 

He  denied  the  right  of  a  State  Legislature  to  nuUify 
a  Federal  law.  It  must  be  done  by  a  State  convention. 
A  motion  was  made  in  the  South  Carolina  Legislature 
to  call  a  State  convention,  but  failed  of  the  regular  two- 
thirds  vote.  Another  effort  was  more  successful,  and  a 
convention  was  called  to  meet  at  Columbia,  November 
18th.  A  nuUification  ordinance  was  adopted  Novem- 
ber 24th,  declaring  that  the  tariff  of  May  19,  .828, 
and  that  of  July  24,  1832,  were  null  and  void,  and 
instructing  the  Legislature  to  pass  laws  necessary  for 
enforcing  the  ordinance,  after  the  first  day  of  February 
next,  for  preventing  the  collection  of  duties  imposed  by 
the  nullified  laws.  The  convention  announced  that 
every  measure  of  coercion  on  the  part  of  the  Federal 
Government  would  be  regarded  "  as  inconsistent  with 
'*  the  longer  continuance  of  South  Carolina  in  the 
"  Union."  The  convention  then  adjourned  until  March 
to  await  the  action  of  Congress. 

There  were  many  leading  men  of  the  South,  who, 
while  sympathizing  with  those  who  complained  of  the 
obnoxious  tariff  and  not  denying  the  right  of  a  State 
in  the  ultimate  resort  to  judge  of  the  measure  of  its 
grievances  and  the  mode  of  redress,  nevertheless  held 
that  South  Carolina  had  placed  herself  in  a  wrong  atti- 
tude by  passing  her  ordinance  at. a  time  when  the  Pres- 
idential election,  two  ■  weeks  before,  had  gone  over- 
whelminajly  against  Clay's  American  system,  and 
when  a  lacge  majority  of  opponents  of  the  odious  tariff 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.      159 

had  been  returned  to  Congress  under  a  pledge  for  its 
repeal  or  modification.  A  majority  of  the  people  of 
the  8outh  believed  that  the  case  was  not  such  an  one 
as  was  described  in  the  resolutions  of  '98,  and  in  those 
of  the  Hartford  convention,  as  a  "  deliberate,  palpable 
"  and  dangerous  "  exercise  of  powers  not  granted  by 
the  compact.  It  was  not  a  deliberate  act  of  the  United 
States ;  because  after  full  debate  in  Congress,  and  an 
appeal  to  the  country  in  a  Presidential  canvass  in  which 
the  tariff  was' a  leading  question,  the  verdict  of  the 
people  of  the  United  State  had  been  against  it.  It  was 
not  a  dangerous  act  because  the  verdict  of  the  election 
being  adverse,  it  was  now  certain  that  its  dangerous 
and  oppressive  features  would  be  removed.  Recog- 
nizing the  fact  that  the  Constitution  itself  was  a  bundle 
of  compromises,  these  patriotic  citizens  of  the  South 
were  willing  to  endure  all  burdens  of  Government  which 
were  not  absolutely  too  grievous  to  be  borne  and  without 
remedy,  rather  than  rush  to  unknown  evils  beyond  the 
confines  oF  the  Federal  system,  ^fhey  believed  in  <\n 
appeal  to  the  judiciary  whenever  the  question  could  be 
reached  in  that  way ;  if  it  was  a  question  which  could 
not  be  so  reached,  they  appealed  to  the  people  at  the 
next  election.  Hence  they  now  protested  against  the 
hasty  action  of  South  Carolina. 

Another  large  body  of  Southern  people  held  that 
the  remedy  adopted  by  South  Carolina  was  not  the 
proper  one.  To  secede  from  the  Union  was  one  thing ; 
to  remain  in  the  Union  and  nullify  a  Federal  law  was 
quite  another  thing.  Nullification  would  make  the 
Union  "  a  rope  of  sand,"  and  place  her  precisely  in 
the  position  she  occupied  under  the  articles  of  confed- 
eration when  she  had  power  to  enact  laws  but  no  power 


160    THE  chadlb  of  the  confederacy. 

to  enforce  obedience  to  them.  The  Constitution  was 
clearly  intended  to  enable  the  Federal  Government  to 
enforce  obedience  to  her  laws  within  those  States  which 
remained  in  the.  Union.  To  escape  such  laws,  the  rem- 
edy, as  was  asserted  by  these  opponents  of  nullification, 
was  by  secession  fi'om  the  Union. 

It  is  interesting  to  know  that  many  of  these  South- 
ern opponents  of  the  principle  of  nullification  were 
those  who  but  a  few  years  previous  had  stood  by  Gov- 
"  ernors  Troup  and  Gilmer  m  their  determined  and  suc- 
cessful nuUification  of  the  Indian  treaties.  The  appar- 
ent inconsistency  of  their  course  is  explained  by  refer- 
ence to  the  distinction  which  they  made  between  a 
Federal  law  of  merely  local  operation  which  might  be 
met  by  the  local  authorities  without  affecting  the  gen- 
eral interests  of  the  Union,  and  a  Federal  law  of  gen- 
eral operation  affecting  all  the  States.  The  former 
could  be  opposed,  they  said,  by  State  action  within  the 
Union;  the  latter  could  be  met  only  by  separation  from 
the  Union.  While  the  Georgian,  however,  could  con- 
sistently deny  nullification  as  a  remedy,  in  the  case  of 
the  tariff,  the  New  Englander  who  had  advocated  nul- 
lification of  the  embargo  law,  and  of  the  acts  declar- 
ing war  against  Great  Britain,  was  morally  estopped* 
from  such  denial. 

There  was  still  another  class  of  Southern  men  who 
held  that  the  protective  tariff  was  not  only  not  un- 
constitutional and  dangerous  to  the  States,  but  actually 
within  the  scope  of  the  Constitution,  and  conducive  to 
the  prosperity  of  the  whole  country.  This  class  of 
men  were  n  merous  throughout  the  West,  powerful  in 
Louisiana  and  strong  throughout  the  Gulf  States. 
When  the  policy  of  protection  was  first  broached^  and 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.  161 

the  discriminating  tariff  of  1816  enacted,  New  England 
denounced  it  as  unjust  and  oppressive,  and  the  South 
advocated  it  almost  as  a  unit.  As  has  been  already 
mentioned,  Calhoun  was  then  for  protection,  and  Web- 
ster was  for  free  trade.  The  South  looked  to  the  day 
when  she  might  build  up  factories  in  her  cotton  fields  ; 
but  New  England  feared  that  a  protective  tariff  would 
lessen  the  imported  cargoes  which  fostered  her  ship- 
ping. Public  sentiment  was  not  aroused  upon  this 
question  until  1824,  and  not  until  then  was  a  doubt 
expressed  as  to  the  constitutionality  of  protection. 
Four  years  later.  New  England  had  changed  her  invest- 
ments from  the  West  India  shipping  trade  into  factories, 
and  was  beginning  to  reap  a  golden  harvest.  The 
Western  States,  also,  were  giving  birth  to  villages  and 
cities  where  furnaces  and  water-wheels  were  in  perpet- 
ual motion.  The  hemp  factories  of  Kentucky  and 
Missouri  were  supplying  bagging  and  rope  to  the 
Cotton  States,  and  Louisiana  was  furnishing  the  whole 
Union  with  sugar.  With  an  exception  here  and  there, 
the  American  system  had  been  sustained  from  1820  to 
1832  by  the  New  England  States,  by  those  north  and 
west  of  the  Alleghanies,  and  by  the  State  of  Louisiana. 
It  is  not  surprising  that  it  had  ardent  supporters 
among  those  intellects  at  the  South,  who,  looking  into 
the  future,  desired  to  diversify  her  industries  and  make 
her  self-supporting  in  peace  and  in  war.  It  was  for 
these  reasons  that  a  large  class  at  the  South  opposed 
the  nullificattion  act  of  South  Carolina  as  hasty,  incon- 
siderate and  illegal. 

President  Jackson  issued  his  proclamation  on  the 
11th  of  December,  1832.  Congress  was  then  in  ses- 
sion.      In  his  annual  message,  the  President  had 


162      THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

expressed  .an  opinion  that  the  proceedings  in  South 
Carolina   would   come   to   an   end  if  the  tariff  were 
simply  put  upon  a  revenue  footing.      South  Carolina 
still  persisting  in  her  course,  notwithstanding  the  favor- 
able disposition  of  the  administration  and  of  Congress, 
the  "revenue   collection,"  or  "  force  bill,"  as  it  was 
called,  was  introduced  into  Congress,  January  31st, 
1833,  giving  the  President  full  power  to  meet  the  acts 
of  the  nullification  legislature.     The  whole  country  was 
plunged  into  the  wildest  excitement.     Those  at  the 
South  who  protested  against  the  course  of  South  Caro- 
lina, protested  as  strongly  against  the  use  of  force 
towards  her  by  the  Federal  Government.     Upon  this 
bill  arose  the  great  debate  between  Calhoun  and  Web- 
ster.   Has  the  Federal  Government  the  right  to  coerce 
a  sovereign  State  into  obedience  to  a  law  which  she 
holds  to  be  unconstitutional   and   oppressive?      Cur 
wisest  statesmen  had  often  warned  their  countrymen,  in 
the  most  solemn  terms,  that  our  institutions  could  not 
be  preserved  by  force,  and  could  only  endure  whilst 
concord  of  feeling  and  a  proper  respect  by  one  section 
for  the  rights  of  another  should  be  maintained.     Madi- 
son, in  this  spirit,  had  observed  in  the  Federal  Conven- 
tion that,  "  any  Government  for  the  United  States, 
""  formed  upon  the   supposed   practicability  of  using 
"  force  against  the  unconstitutional  proceedings  of  the 
"  States,  would  prove  as  visionary  and  fallacious  as  the 
"  government  of  [the  old]  Congress."     Senator  Tyler 
of  Virginia,  well  expressed  the  sentiment  of  the  whole 
South  when  he  said:    '^ Yes,  sir,  the  Federal  Union 
''  must  be  preserved.     But  how  ?     Will  you  seek  to 
"  preserve  it  by  force  ?     Will  you  seek  to  appease  the 
^^ angry  spirit  of  discord  by  an  oblation  of  blood? 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.      163 

"  Suppose  that  the  proud  and  haughty  spuit  of  South 
"  Carolina  should  not  bend  to  your  high  edicts  in 
"  token  of  fealty ;  that  you  make  war  upon  her ;  hang 
"  her  Governor,  her  legislators  and  her  judges,  as  trai- 
"  tors,  and  reduce  her  to  the  condition  of  a  conquered 
"province — have  you  preserved  the  Union?  This 
"  Union  consists  of  twenty-four  States ;  would  you 
"  have  preserved  the  Union  by  striking  out  one  of  the 
"  States — one  of  the  old  thirteen  ?  Gentlemen  had 
"  boasted  of  the  flag  of  our  country,  with  its  thirteen 
"  stars.  When  the  light  of  one  of  these  stars  shall 
"  have  been  extinguished,  will  the  flag  wave  over  us, 
"  under  which  our  fathers  fought  ?  If  we  are  to  go  on 
"  striking  out  star  after  star,  what  will  finally  remain 
"  but  a  central  and  burning  sun,  blighting  and  destroy- 
"  ing  every  germ  of  liberty  ?  The  flag  which  I  wish 
"  to  wave  over  me,  is  that  flag  which  floated  in  triumph 
"  at  Saratoga  and  Yorktown.  It  bore  upon  it  thirteen 
"  stars,  of  which  South  Carolina  was  one.  Sir,  there  is 
*'  a  great  difference  between  preserving  the  Union  and 
"  preserving  the  Government ;  the  Union  may  be  anni- 
"  hilated,  yet  Government  preserved  ;  but^  under  such 
"  a  Government,  no  man  ought  to  desire  to  hve." 

This  idea  of  Mr.  Tyler,  for  the  first  time  advanced 
in  the  American  Senate,  that  the  coercion  of  a  State 
would  leave  it  at  the  feet  of  the  Federal  Government 
as  a  conquered  province,  was  scouted  by  those  Senators 
who  sustained  the  bill.  Mr.  Benton  speaks  of  his  lan- 
guage as  "vituperative."  Mr.  Webster  at  aU  times 
declared  that  whatever  might  be  the  coercion  employed 
by  the  Federal  Government,  it  could  not  operate  upon 
the  State,  but  would  simply  preserve  the  peace  among 
the  people  of  the  State,  and  prevent  their  interference 


164      THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

with  the  regular  process  of  an  act  of  Congress.  Thus 
far  only,  declared  the  Federalists,  could  the  force  bill 
go.  The  Federal  Government  could  no  more  overthrow 
and  destroy  the  State,  than  the  State  could  nullify  an 
act  of  Congress. 

Affairs  were  in  a  critical  state,  and  the  whole 
Southern  people  undoubtedly  stood  ready  in  the  event 
of  hostilities  between  South  Carolina  and  the  United 
States  to  array  themselves  with  the  former.  In  this 
crisis,  Virginia  delegated  Benjamin  Watkins  Leigh,  as 
commissioner  to  intercede  with  South  Carolina  and  to 
urge  her  either  to  rescind  her  ordinance  or  to  postpone 
action  until  the  close  of  the  session  of  CongTess.  His 
mission  was  successful.  In  view  of  the  probable  reduc- 
tion of  the  tariff  to  a  revenue  standard,  action  upon  her 
ordinance  was  postponed  from  February  1st  to  March 
4th.  It  was  then  that  Clay  offered  his  compromise 
measure,  securing  adequate  protection  for  nine  years, 
and  less  protection  beyond  that  term.  The  manufac- 
turers denounced  him,  as  having  yielded  to  a  storm 
which  in  a  few  years  would  sweep  protection  away  en- 
tu'ely;  and  his  Northern  supporters  fell  from  him  in 
multitudes.  It  was  said  to  him  that  by  compromising 
protection  he  had  forfeited  his  chances  for  the  Presi- 
dency. "  I  would  rather  be  right  than  be  President," 
replied  the  patriot.  While  Webster,  proud  of  the  power 
of  the  opulent  North,  and  impatient  of  what  he  held  to 
be  the  factious  disturbance  of  ambitious  politicians, 
reftised  to  be  a  party  to  the  compromise.  Clay  re- 
membered that  the  Union  itself  was  a  compromise  and 
that  no  document,  like  the  Constitution,  could  be  so 
perfect,  that  a  resort  to  mutual  concessions  might  be 
disc9,rded  when   questions   of  conflicting  jurisdiction 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THEfOONFEDERAOY.  165 

arise  Ibetween  the  State  and  Federal  Government.  To 
the  mind  of  this  great  man  it  was  clear  that  it  was 
better  to  solve  political  questions  by  compromises  which 
endangered  no  great  interest  and  whieh  applied  to  their 
cure  the  soothing  influence  of  time,  than  to  resort  to 
civil  war  with  its  waste  of  treasure  and  blood,  its  dis- 
tortion of  principles,  and  the  bitter  seed  it  would  sow 
for  generation  after  generation. 

Referring  to  the  spirit  of  that  day,  the  attitude  of 
South  Carolina  finds  an  apology  in  the  temper  of  the 
North.  While  she  believed  that  the  protective  tariff 
was  dangerous  to  the  Union  and  oppressive  to  her 
people,  and  that  its  retention  would  justify  resistence, 
her  enemies  on  the  other  hand  believed  that  the  aboli- 
tion of  protection  would  be  ruinous  to  the  welfare  of 
the  Union  and  would  justify  its  dissolution.  The 
threats  of  South  Carolina  were  met  by  counter  threats 
from  the  manufacturing  regions.  If  treason  lurked  in 
the  oratory  of  Calhoun,  and  in  the  proclamations  of 
Hayne,  it  showed  itself  fully  to  view  in  the  language  of 
Northern  politicians.  Clay  had  distinctly  declared 
that  danger  to  the  Union  was  more  to  be  feared  from  a 
surrender  of  the  American  system  than  from  its  reten- 
tion. Of  the  friends  of  that  system  he  said  :  "  Let 
"  them  feel  that  a  foreign  system  is  to  predominate, 
^'  and  the  sources,  of  their  subsistence  and  comfort 
"  dried  up  ;  let  New  England,  the  West  and  the  middle 
"  States,  all  feel  that  they  too  are  the  victims  of  a  mis- 
"  taken  policy,  and  let  these  vast  portions  of  our 
"  country  despair  of  any  favorable  change,  and  then 
"  indeed  might  we  tremble  for  the  continuance  and 
"  safety  of  this  Unions 

John  M.  Clayton,  Senator  from  Delaware,  said  that 


1156  THE  CRADLE  OP  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

"  the  Government  cannot  he  kept  together  if  the  prind- 
'^  pie  of  protection  were  to  le  discarded  in  our  policy ^ 
and  that  he  "  would  pause  before  he  surrendered  that 
"  principle,  even  to  save  the  Union.'''* 

Thus  it  was  that  whereas  South  Carolina  was  ready 
to  resist  the  Federal  Government  in  the  levying  of  im- 
posts for  what  she  believed  to  be  an  unconstitutional 
object,  her  defamers  were  ready  to  dissolve  the  Union 
if  the  imposts  were  simply  directed  towards  raising 
revenue.  The  cause  for  which  South  Carolina  would 
fight  was  a  violation  of  the  Constitution ;  the  cause  for 
which  her  enemies  would  fight  was  not  a  violation  of 
the  Constitution,  but  simply  a  curtailment  of  their 
extravagant  profits  in  business. 

That  profound  student,  Von  Hoist,  in  his  able  work 
on  the  Constitutional  History  of  the  United  States, 
has  not  failed  to  observe  the  inconsistency  between  the 
action  of  Pj^esident  Jackson  towards  South  Carolina 
and  that  towards  Georgia,  only  a  few  years  previous. 
"  Why  was  that  now  so  great  a  crime,"  he  asks,  "  upon 
"  which  the  President  then  looked  with  scarcely  con- 
'*  cealed  satisfaction  ?  Did  not  his  oath  of  office  im- 
"  pose  the  same  duties  upon  him  then  ?  Was  the 
^'  supremacy  of  a  tarilF  law  of  a  higher  sort  than  that 
^'  of  treaties  ?  Why  must  a  sovereign  State  now  most 
"  obediently  entreat  the  United  States  Supreme  Court 
"  to  inform  it  of  the  limits  of  its  rights,  when,  then, 
"  a  State  no  more  sovereign  could  angrily  reject  the 
"  decision  of  that  Court,  made  in  all  form,  as  a  revolt- 
"  ing  assumption,  without  receiving  even  a  warning  re- 
"  proof  from  President  or  Congress  ?  South  Cai'olina 
"  knew  that  no  answer  could  be  given  to  all  these  ques- 
"  tions,  and  therefore  did  not  fail  to  pat  them." 


TSE  CRADLE  OP  THE  CONFEDERACY.      167 

The  answer  to  these  questions  is  that  President  Jack- 
son was  carried  away  by  his  personal  animosity  to  Cal- 
houn, and  having  resolved  to  antagonize  him  and  vin- 
dicate his  determination  to  maintain  a  personal  govern- 
ment, he  hastened  into  an  inconsistency,  and  assumed 
an  attitude  against  State-rights  which  he  afterwards 
desired  to  explain  away.  When  Calhoun  was  elected 
to  the  Vice-Presidency  with  Jackson,  it  was  not  known 
to  the  latter  that  when  a  member  of  Monroe's  Cabinet, 
the  former  had  expressed  the  opinion  that  the  General 
ought  to  be  brought  to  trial  for  his  conduct  in  the  war 
against  the  Seminoles.  When  the  truth  was  made 
known  to  Jackson,  he  submitted  the  charge  to  Cal- 
houn's inspection  and  was  inlormed  that  it  was  true. 
From  that  day  General  Jackson  was  the  implacable 
enemy  of  Calhoun.  He  even  threatened  him  with  the 
halter — and  to  show  his  hostility,  he  reorganized  the 
Cabinet,  giving  a  majority  of  the  Secretaryships  to  the 
friends  of  Van  Buren,  and  the  enemies  of  Calhoun. 

Calhoun  at  once  resigned  the  Vice-Presidency  and 
was  elected  to  the  United  States  Senate  to  succeed 
Hayne,  who  had  given  up  his  seat  in  order  to  accept 
the  Governorship  of  South  Carolina.  Upon  taking 
his  seat  in  the  Senate,  Calhoun  at  once  took  issue 
with  the  President's  proclamation.  That  proclamation 
had  already  been  received  with  loud  laughter  and  jest- 
ing commentaries  by  the  South  Carolina  Legislature. 
This  was  to  be  expected ;  but  it  was  also  received  with 
doubt,  hesitation,  or  opposition  by  a  vast  multitude,  who 
did  not  sympathize  with  South  Carohna.  Henry  Clay 
wrote  December  12th,  to  Judge  Brooks :  "As  to  the 
"  proclamation,  although  there  are  good  things  in  it, 
"especially  what  relates  to   the  judiciary,  there  are 


168      THE  CRADLE  OP  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

"  some  entirely  too  ultra  for  me,  and  which  I  cannot 
"  stomach." 

Before  its  adjournment  the  South  CaroHna  conven- 
tion issued  an  address  to  the  people  of  the  United 
States,  in  which  it  declared  that  so  far  as  lay  in  its 
power  matters  would  not  come  to  bloodshed,  and  that 
to  avoid  such  result,  the  State  would  secede  from  the 
Union.  Whatever  doubt  was  entertained  by  the  States- 
rights  advocate  as  to  the  right  of  the  State  to  remain 
in  the  Union  and  nullify  Federal  laws,  it  does  not 
appear  that  there  was  any  doubt  among  them  as  to  the 
right  of  peaceable  secession.  In  the  Legislature  of 
South  Carolina  the  proclamation  of  Jackson  was  severely 
commented  upon  by  Barnwell  Smith,  as  containing 
"  the  tyrannical  doctrine  that  we  have  not  even  the 
"  right  to  secede."  The  address  proceeded  to  set  forth 
a  plan  of  taxation  which  would  satisfy  the  State  and 
lead  to  a  repeal  of  the  nullification  ordinance.  This 
concession  was  offered  by  the  .State,  "  provided  she  is 
"  met  in  due  time  and  in  a  becoming  spirit  by  the 
"  States  interested  in  the  protection  of  manufactures." 

President  Jackson,  in  his  message  of  December  4  th, 
recommended  the  removal  of  such  duties  as  were  found 
to  fall  unequally  upon  any  of  the  community.  This 
wa^  a  concession  riiade  in  the  face  of  the  ordinance  of 
South  Carolina.  On  December  27th  the  committee  to 
whom  this  part  of  the  message  was  referred  reported  a 
bill  decreasing  the  revenue  $13,000,(100  compared  with 
the  tariff  of  ]  828,  and  $7,000,000  compared  with  that 
1832.  As  this  reduction  was  to  take  place  within  two 
years,  it  amounted  to  an  abandonment  of  protection. 
The  manufacturers  were  alarmed,  and  Webster  opposed 
the  bill  with  all  his  power.     He  declared  that  Jackson 


O^HE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.  16^ 

was  not  in  favor  of  any  concessions  ix)  the  nuUifiers,  but 
had  been  pressed  forward  by  his  party  who  feared  the 
effect  of  the  doctrines  developed  in  the  proclamation. 

Pending  these  proceedings  the  President  asked  for 
extraordinary  powers  to  enforce  the  collection  of  cus- 
toms as  against  the  ordinance;  and  "in  case  of  an  at- 
"  tempt  otherwise  to  take  the  property  [attached  for 
"  non-payment  of  duties]  by  a  force  too  great  to  be 
"  overcome  by  the  officers  of  the  customs,"  he  applied 
for  authority  to  use  the  land  and  sea  forces  to  execute 
the  law.  On  January  21st,  the  judiciary  committee 
reported  the  bill  known  as  the  "  force  bill,"  to  make 
possible  the  collection  of  customs.  The  bill  was  furi- 
ously assailed  by  all  the  States-rights  advocates.  The 
debate  had  continued  fourteen  days,  and  threatened  to 
be  almost  interminable  when  Clay  asked  the  Senate  to 
permit  him  to  bring  in  a  bill  to  modify  the  tariff.  Ben- 
ton relates  that  Clay  had  advised  Webster  of  his  inten- 
tions, but  that  the  latter  had  opposed  the  proposed  bill, 
saying :  "  It  would  be  yielding  great  principles  to  fac- 
"tion,  and  that  the  time  had  come  to  test  the  strength 
"  of  the  Constitution  and  the  Government." 

Calhoun  sustained  the  proposed  bill,  saying  that  the 
minor  points  of  difference  would  present  no  difficulty 
if  men  met  each  other  in  the  spirit  of  mutual  compro- 
mise. That  Calhoun  did  not  yield  consent  to  this  pro- 
position simply  to  escape  personal  danger,  appears  from 
his  speech  of  February  15th  and  16th  against  the 
force  bill,  in  which  he  declared  that  should  that  bill 
become  law  and  an  effort  be  made  to  enforce  it,  "it  will 
"be  resisted  at  every  hazard — even  that  of  death 
"itself"  On  February  18th  the  Senate  ordered  the 
force  bill  to  a  third  reading  by  a  vote  of  thirty-two  to 


170      THE  CRADLE  OP  TflE  CONPEDEBAOY. 

eight.  On  February  25th,  on  motion  of  Letcher,  the 
bill  of  Yerplanck,  then  pending  in  the  House,  was 
stricken  out,  and  Clay's  bill  substituted  for  it.  The 
bill,  on  the  next  day,  passed  the  House  by  a  vote  of 
one  hundred  and  nineteen  against  eighty-five. 

The  House  then  took  up  the  Senate  bill.  Already 
the  Judiciary  Committee  of  that  body  had,  on  Febru- 
ary 8th,  denounced  the  message  of  President  Jackson, 
and  declared  that  the  use  of  force  towards  South  Caro- 
Hna  would  be  unjust  and  impolitic  from  every  point  of 
view.  The  committee  did  not  pass  upon  the  question 
of  right,  but  they  evidently  believed  that  the  Federal 
Government  had  no  such  right.  The  House  did  not 
carry  out  the  views  of  the  committee,  but  after  waiting 
to  see  the  fate  of  the  Clay  tariff  bill,  in  the  Senate, 
they  yielded  assent  to  the  Senate  force  bill.  When 
the  force  bill  came  up  in  the  House,  McDuflie  asked 
what  practical  aim  the  bill  now  had,  and  Foster  asked 
any  member  to  rise  in  his  seat  who  imagined  any 
further  resistence  by  South  Carolina  possible  after  every 
Senator  and  Representative  from  that  State  had  voted 
for  the  tariff  bill.  Notwithstanding  these  objections, 
the  passage  of  the  two  bills  was  tacitly  regarded  as  a 
mutual  concession,  and  the  House  ordered  the  force 
bill  to  a  third  reading,  by  a  vote  of  one  hundred  and 
twenty-six  to  thirty-four.  The  Senate  thereupon 
passed  the  tariff  bill  by  a  vote  of  twenty-nine  to  six- 
teen. The  President  signed  both  bills  on  the  2d  of 
March,  and  on  March  16th,  South  Carohna  repealed 
the  ordinance  of  nullification. 

The  people  of  the  South  saw  in  this  settlement  a 
victory  for  South  Carolina.  The  exhibition  of  resis- 
tance to  a  Federal  law  by  a  single  State  had  resulted 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.      171 

in  a  surrender  by  the  Federal  Government  of  the  law 
in  question.  It  is  true  that  the  passage  of  the  force 
act  was  an  assertion  by  the  United  States  of  the  prin- 
ciples of  the  proclamation —but  that  assertion  was 
weakened  by  a  denial  on  the  part  of  Jackson's  intimate 
advisers  of  the  apparent  meaning  of  the  proclamation, 
and  was  destroyed  several  years  later  by  the  adoption 
of  substfintially  the  V(;ry  resolutions  with  which  Cal- 
houn had  met  and  defied  that  proclamation. 

A  portion  of  Jackson's  adherents  objected  to  his 
course,  because  they  saw  in  his  proclamation  the  con- 
solidation ideas  of  the  old  Federalists.  The  Congres- 
sional Globe  met  the  reproaches  of  this  faction  with 
a  long  "  authorized  "  article  in  which  the  President  let 
it  be  stated  that  he  recognized  not  only  in  the  States 
but  in  the  State  Governments,  the  rights  claimed  in 
the  Virginia  and  Kentucky  resolutions.  The  article 
said  : 

"  Its  [the  proclamation's]  doctrines,  if  construed  in 
"  the  sense  they  were  intended,  and  carried  out,  incul- 
"  cate  *  ^  that  in  the  case  of  the  violation  of  the 
"  Constitution  of  the  United  States  and  the  usurpation 
"  of  the  powers  not  granted  by  it  on  the  part  of  the 
"  functionaries  of  the  General  Government,  the  Sfcite 
"  Governments  have  the  right  to  interpose  and  arrest 
"  the  evil,  upon  the  principles  which  were  set  forth  in 
**the  Virginia  resolutions  of  .798,  against  the  ahen 
"  and  sedition  acts ;  and  finally  that  in  extreme  eases  of 
"  oppression  (every  mode  of  constitutional  redress  hav- 
"  ing  been  sought  in  vain)  the  right  resides  with  the 
'^  people  of  the  several  States  to  organize  resistance 
"  against  such  oppression." 

The  editor  of  the  Globe,  Francis  P.  Blair,  who  was 


172  THE  CJRIdLE  CP  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

authorized  to  explain  away  tho  generally  understood 
meaning  of  the  proclamation,  proceeded  in  this  article 
to  say  that  during  the  debate  on  Footers  resolutions 
between  Hayne  and  Webster,  and  while  he  was  editor 
of  a  journal  in  Kentucky,  he  received  from  the  Post 
Master  General  the  speech  delivered  by  Mr.  Living- 
ston, accompanied  by  a  letter  saying  that  the  views 
contained  in  it  were  sanctioned  by  the  President,  and 
might  be  considered  as  exhibiting  the  light  in  which 
his  administration  considered  the  subject  under  debate. 
The  following  extracts  from  that  speech  will  serve  to 
illustrate  the  principles  upon  which  the  President  then 
took  his  stand,  and  to  explain  the  more  condensed 
view  given  of  them  in  his  proclamation  : 

"  It  is  a  compact  by  which  the  people  of  each  State 
*'  have  consented  to  take  from  their  own  Legislatures 
^'  some  of  the  powers  they  had  conferred  upon  them, 
"  and  to  transfer  them,  with  other  enumerated  powers, 
"  to  the  Government  of  the  United  States,  created  by 
"  that  compact." 

"  Yet  I  am  far  from  thinking  that  this  [Supreme] 
"  Court  is  created  an  umpire  to  judge  between  the 
"  General  and  State  Governments." 

"  In  an  extreme  case  *  *  *  the  injured  State 
"  would  have  a  right  at  once  to  declare  that  it  would  no 
"  longer  be  bound  by  a  compact  which  had  been  thus 
'•  grossly  violated." 

John  Tyler  in  his  memoir  of  Roger  B.  Taney,  says 
that  when  the  proclamation  was  presented  to  President 
Jackson,  he  disapproved  the  principles  and  doctrines 
contained  in  it.  But  as  the  conclusion  suited  him,  he 
determined  to  issue  it  at  once',  without  waiting  to  cor- 
rect the  erroneous  doctrines  contained  in  it. 


THE   CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.  173 

The  South  did  not  believe  Jackson  entertained  the 
principles  of  his  proclamation.  It  was  against  his 
views  and  conduct  in  the  Creek  controversy.  It  was 
antagonistic  to  the  Virginia  Resolutions  of  1798,  which 
he  professed  to  endorse.  It  ran  counter  to  the  above 
expressed  views  of  Livingston,  who  is  said  to  have 
written  the  proclamation.  They  attributed  his  course 
to  purely  personal  hostility  against  Calhoun,  and  they 
attributed  the  concession  of  the  United  States  on  the 
TariiGf  question  as  a  recognition  of  the  correctness  of 
the  views  of  South  Carolina.  The  condition  of  the 
public  faith  as  to  the  umpire  in  disputes  between  the 
States  and  the  United  States  was  well  expressed  by 
Clay  in  his  letter  of  January  17th,  to  Brooks :  "  As 
"  to  politics  we  have  no  past,  no  future.  After  forty 
"  years  of  existence  under  the  present  Constitution, 
"  what  single  principle  is  fixed  ?  The  bank  ?  No. 
"  Internal  improvements  ?  No.  The  tariff  ?  No. 
"  Who  is  to  interpret  the  Constitution  ?  We  are  as 
",  much  afloat  at  sea  as  the  day  when  the  Constitution 
"  went  into  operation." 

Not  only  did  the  actual  victory  rest  with  South  Car- 
olina in  this  controversy,  but  the  intellectual  and  moral 
victory  rested  with  the  champion  of  South  Carolina. 
On  January  22d,  1833,  Calhoun  introduced  into  the 
Senate  his  celebrated  series  of  resolutions  which  gave 
rise  to  the  remarkable  debate  between  himself  and 
Webster.  The  first  resolution  against  which  the  thun- 
ders of  Webster  were  directed,  reads  as  follows  : 

"  Resolved,  That  the  people  of  the  several  States 
"  comprising  these  United  States,  are  united  as  parties 
"  to  a  constitutional  compact,  to  which  the  people  of  each 
^^  State  acceded  as  a  separate  sovereign  community,  each 


174      THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

"  binding  itself  by  its  own  particular  ratification  ;  and 
"  that  the  Union  of  which  the  said  compact  is  the 
"bond,  is  a  Union  between  the  States  ratifying  the 
*^  same." 

From  this  compact  the  other  resolutions  deduced  the 
doctrine  of  the  resolutions  of  '08,  that  in  this  case  as 
in  all  other  cases  of  compact  among  sovereign  parties, 
without  any  common  judge,  each  has  an  equal  right  to 
judge  for  itself  as  well  of  the  infraction  as  of  the  mode 
and  measure  of  redress.  These  resolutions  of  Calhoun 
were  aimed  directly  at  the  President's  proclamation. 
Webster  so  accepted  and  so  treated  them.  He  argued 
that  "the  Constitution  means  a  Government,  and  not 
"  a  compact."  "  Not  a  Constitutional  compact  but  a 
*'  Government."  "  If  compact,  it  rests  on  plighted 
"  faith,  and  the  mode  of  redress  would  be  to  declare  the 
"  whole  void."  "  States  may  secede,  if  a  league  or 
"  compact." 

Seizing  upon  this  admission  of  Webster,  that  a  State 
may  secede  if  the  Constitution  is  a  compact,  Calhoun 
in  his  response  called  attention  to  the  language  used  by 
Massachusetts  in  ratifying  the  Constitution.  She  speaks 
of  it  as  a  "  solemn  compact."  He  called  attention  to 
Webster's  own  language  in  his  great  speech  three  years 
before,  upon  the  Foote  resolutions,  when  he  alluded  to 
"  accusations  which  impute  to  us  a  disposition  to  evade 
''the  Constitutional  compact''  So  complete  was  Cal- 
houn's argument  that  Webster  never  offered  a  rejoinder. 
Alexander  H.  Stephens,  in  his  "War  between  the 
*'  States,"  speaks  of  it  as  "  a  crusher,  an  extinguisher, 
"  an  annihilatrr,"  and  says — "  This  speech  of  his  was 
"not  answered  then,  it  has  not  been  answered  since, 
^'  and  in  my  judgment  never  will  be,  or  can  be  answered 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.  175 

"  while  truth  has  its  legitimate  influence,  and  reason 
"  controls  the  judgments  of  men." 

That  Webster  felt  the  force  of  Calhoun's  argument 
is  evident  from  the  change  in  his  own  views  within  the 
next  few  years.  In  1839^  in  the  case  of  the  Bank  of 
Augusta  vs.  Uarle,  Webster  used  such  language  as  tliis : 
"  I  am  not  prepared  to  say  that  the  States  have  no 
"  national  sovereignty."  "  The  Constitution  treats 
"  States  as  States."  "  The  States  of  this  Union,  as 
^'  States,  are  subject  to  all  the  voluntary  and  customary 
"  laws  of  nations."  The  language  of  the  Supreme 
Court  in  this  case  was :  "  They  are  sovereign  States." 
"  A  corporation  created  by  one  sovereignty  is  per- 
"  mitted  to  make  contracts  in  another,  and  to  sue  in  its 
"  courts."  "  The  same  law  of  comity  prevails  among 
"  the  several  sovereignties  of  this  Union."  Thus  the 
Supreme  Court  held  that  sovereignty  is  still  retained 
by  the  several  States  of  the  Union  under  the  Constitu- 
tion. Webster  admitted  it.  The  great  ''  expounder 
"of  the  Constitution,"  in  1839,  was  immeasurably 
behind  his  successor  of  3  861,  who  held  with  Lincoln 
that  the  relation  of  a  State  to  the  United  States  was 
simply  that  of  a  county  to  a  State — without  one 
shadow  or  spark  of  sovereignty. 

Subsequently,  in  his  letter  to  the  Barings,  bankers  of 
London,  who  enquired  as  to  the  right  of  States  to  issue 
bonds  and  bori'ow  money,  Webster  recognized  in  the 
Sfcite  this  high  privilege  of  sovereignty.  "Every 
"  State,"  said  he,  "  is  an  independent,  sovereign,  politi- 
"  cal  community,  except  in  so  far  as  certain  powers, 
*•  which  it  might  otherwise  have  exercised,  have  been 
"  conferred  on  a  General  Government,'.'      Again,  in 


176      THE  CKABLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

1851,  Webster  expressed  similar  views  in  a  speech 
made  at  Capon  Springs,  Virginia.     He  said : 

"  How  absurd  it  is  to  suppose  that  when  different 
"parties  enter  into  a  compact  for  certain  purposes, 
"  either  can  disregard  any  one  provision,  and  expect, 
"  nevertheless,  the  other  to  observe  the  rest." 

"  I  have  not  hesitated  to  say,  and  I  repeat,  that  if 
"  the  Northern  States  refuse,  wilfully  and  deliberately, 
'^  to  carry  into  effect  that  part  of  the  Constitution 
"  which  respects  the  restoration  of  fugitive  slaves,  the 
"  South  would  no  longer  be  bound  to  observe  the  com- 
"  pact.  A  bargain  cannot  be  broken  on  one  side  and 
"  still  bind  on  the  other." 

The  Resolutions  of  Calhoun  in  1833  did  not  express 
more  distinctly  than  this  language  of  Webster,  that  the 
Union  is  a  Union  of  States,  that  the  Union  is  founded 
upon  compact,  and  that  a  compact  broken  on  one  side 
does  not  continue  to  bind  tho  other  side.  No  vote  was 
taken  upon  the  Calhoun  resolutions  of  1833,  but  on 
December  28,  1837,  only  four  years  later,  Calhoun  in- 
troduced to  the  Senate  a  new  set  of  resolutions,  the 
first  of  which,  in  these  words,  set  forth  the  very  idea  of 
those  of  1833. 

Resolved,  That  in  the  adoption  of  the  Federal  "Con- 
*'  stitution,  the  States  adopting  the  same,  acted  severally 
"  as  free,  independent,  and  sovereign  States ;  and  that 
"  each  for  itself,  by  its  own  voluntary  assent,  catered 
"  the  Union  with  the  view  to  its  increased  security 
"  against  all  dangers,  domestic  as  well  as  foreign,  and 
"  the  more  perfect  and  secure  enjoyment  of  its  advan- 
"  tages,  natural,  political  and  social." 

It  will  be  observed  that  this  resolution  is  in  direct 
conflict  with  the  Websterian  doctrine  as  announced  in 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.      177 

1838,  and  with  the  generally  accepted  meaning  of 
Jackson's  proclamation.  Calhoun  here  announced  that 
the  Union  is  a  compact  springing  from  the  States  act- 
ing as  States,  and  not  a  government  springing  from  the 
people.  This  resolution  was  adopted  by  a  vote  of  thir- 
ty-two Senators  against  thirteen.  Eighteen  States  voted 
for  it ;  and  Senators  representing  only  six  States  voted 
against  it.  One  State  was  divided  and  one  did  not 
vote.  Thus  more  than  two-thirds  of  the  States,  through 
their  Senators,  vindicated  the  political  ideas  of  Calhoun, 
and  this  verdict  was  given  only  four  years  after  the  or- 
dinance of  nuUification,  and  after  Jackson's  proclama- 
tion. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 


Controversy  between  Alabama  and  the  United  States — In- 
trusion on  the  Creelc  Lands — Killing  of  Owens— Mes- 
sage of  Governor  Gayle — Threats  of  Resistance  to  the 
Military — Resolutions  of  a  Legislative  Committee — 
Mission  of  Key  to  the  State — Adjustment  of  the  Diffi- 
culty— The  Federal  Government  Compromises  the  Ques- 
tion^ (fee,  &c. 


"  Allegiance,  a  word  brought  from  the  Old  "World,  of  Latin  origin, 
from  Mfiro.  to  bind,  means  the  obligation  which  everyone  owes  to  that 
power  in  the  State,  to  which  he  is  indebted  for  the  protection  of  his 
rights  of  person  and  property.  Allegiance  and  sovereignty,  as  we  have 
seen,  are  reciprocal.  '  To  whatever  power  a  citizen  owes  allegiance,  that 
power  is  his  sovereign.'  To  what  power  are  the  citizens  of  the  several 
States  indebted  for  protection  of  person  and  property,  in  all  the  relations 
of  life,  for  the  regulation  of  which  governments  are  iiJ^tituted  ?  Cer- 
tainly not  to  the  Federal  Government." 

Alexander  H.  Stephens. 


"  The  use  of  force  against  a  State  would  look  more  like  a  declaration 
of  war  than  an  infliction  of  punishment,  and  would  probably  be  consid- 
ered by  the  party  attacked  as  a  dissolution  of  all  previous  compacts  by 
which  it  might  bo  bound.  *  *  Any  government  for  the  United  States 
formed  on  the  supposed  practicability  of  using  force  against  the  uncon- 
stitutional proceedings  of  the  States  would  prove  visionary  and  falla- 
cious." 

Jambs  Madison,  in  the  Convention. 


The  lands  occupied  by  the  Creeks  in  Alabama  were 
laid  off  and  organized  into  nine  counties,  by  an  act  of 
the  General  Assembly,  so  as  to  put  the  entire  machin- 
ery of  the  State  Government  into  full  operation.  This 
was  in  accordance  with  the  action  of  Georgia,  in  pur- 
suance of  the  Constitution  of  Alaban^a,  and  consistent 
with  the  views  of  President  Jackson,  as  understood  at 
the  time  the  treaty  was  made,  and  before  his  views  had 


180      THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

become  affected  by  the  tariff  difficulty  in  South  Caro- 
lina. Several  of  these  counties  contained  a  population 
of  six  or  eight  thousand  whites,  and  the  aggregate 
white  population  was  not  less  than  twenty-five  thousand. 
The  treaty  by  which  the  Creek  Indians  in  March, 
1832,  ceded  to  the  United  States  their  possessions  in 
Alabama,  contained  this  stipulation  : 

Article  5th. — "All  intruders  upon  the  country 
"  hereby  ceded  shall  be  removed  therefrom  in  the  same 
"manner  as  intruders  may  be  removed  by  law  from 
"  other  public  land,  until  the  country  is  surveyed  and 
"the  selections  made;  excepting  however  from  this 
"  provision,  those  white  persons  who  have  made  their 
"  own  improvements,  and  not  expelled  the  Creeks  from 
"  theirs.  Such  persons  may  remain  till  their  crops  are 
"  gathered.  After  the  country  is  surveyed,  and  the  se- 
*•'  lections  made,  this  article  shall  not  operate  upon  that 
"  part  of  it  not  included  in  such  selections.  But  in- 
"  truders  shall,  in  the  manner  before  described  be  re- 
"  moved  from  the  selections,  for  the  term  of  five  years 
"  from  the  ratification  of  this  treaty,  or  until  the  same 
"  are  conveyed  to  white  persons." 

It  will  be  seen  that,  by  this  article,  the  Government 
assumed  upon  itself  the  obligation  of  removing  intru- 
ders from  this  land,  in  the  same  manner  as  intruders 
might  be  removed  by  law  from  other  public  land.  The 
"manner'^  was  prescribed  in  the  Act  of  Congress, 
passed  March  3d,  1807,  entitled  "An  Act  to  prevent 
"  settlements  being  made  on  lands,  ceded  to  the  United 
^'  States,  until  authorized  by  law."  This  Act  provided 
for  the  interposition  of  the  Marshal  and  the  employ- 
ment of  military  force,  under  orders  of  the  President, 
and  furnished  the  authority  by  virtue  of  which  the 
proceedings  in  Alabama,  in  relation  to  this  subject,  took 
place. 


THE  CRAiDLE  OF  THE  OONFEDERACY.  1^1 

There  were  two  limitations  to  this  obligation.  One 
excepted  from  its  operation  "  those  white  persons,  who 
"  have  made  their  own  improvements,  and  not  expelled 
"the  Creeks  from  theirs ;  such  persons  may  remain  till 
"their  crops  are  gathered.''  As  the  season  alluded  to 
had  passed  away,  and  the  crops  had  been  gathered,  this 
provision  was  no  longer  applicable  to  any  settler  upon 
these  lands.  The  other  limitation  confined  the  obligation 
of  the  Government,  to  remove  intruders,  to  the  tracts 
located  for  the  Indians  "after  the  country  is  surveyed 
"  and  the  selections  made,"  and  leaving  the  duty  of  re- 
moval imperative  over  the  whole  cession,  until  both  of 
these  objects  were  accomplished. 

It  was  now  denied  by  Alabama  as  it  had  been  by 
Georgia,  that  the  Act  of  1807  appKed  to  intrusions 
upon  lands  lying  within  a  State.  As  early  as  the  year 
1785,  when  Colonel  Harmar  was  engaged  in  removing 
intruders  from  the  public  lands  in  the  western  country, 
the  commissioners  of  Indian  affairs  directed  him  to 
employ  such  military  force  as  he  might  judge  necessary 
in  driving  off  persons  attempting  to  settle  on  the  lands 
of  the  United  States,  "  not  within  the  limits  of  any 
"  particular  State." 

It  was  claimed  that  the  settlers  upon  these  vacant 
lands,  hunted  over  by  the  Creeks,  had  the  same  rights 
of  occupancy  and  pre-emption  permitted  by  the  laws 
of  the  United  States  in  the  case  of  any  other  vacant 
lands.  Under  a  series  of  Acts  of  Congress,  extending 
from  the  Act  of  May  10th,  1800,  down  to  that  of 
1830,  persons  who  had  settled  upon  public  lands  in 
anticipation  of  a  sale,  were  entitled  to  the  right  of  pre- 
emption. The  Act  of  1830  provided — "that  every 
"  settler  or  occupant  of  the  public  lands,  prior  to  the 


182      THE  CUADLE  OF  fHE  CONFEDERACY. 

"  passage  of  this  Act,  who  is  now  in  possession,  and  has 
"cultivated  any  part  thereof,  in  the  year  1829,  shall 
"  be,  and  he  is  hereby  authorized  to  enter  with  the 
"  register  of  the  land  office,  for  the  district  in  which 
"  such  lands  may  lie,  by  legal  subdivisions,  any  number 
"of  acres  not  more  than  160,  or  quarter  section,  to 
"  include  his  improvement,  upon  paying  to  the  United 
"  States  the  minimum  price  of  the  land." 

In  this  continued  succession  of  Acts,  embracing  and 
running  through  a  period  of  thirty  years,  all  conferring 
upon  settlers  the  valuable  privilege  of  pre-emption,  is 
shown  the  settled  policy  of  the  Government  to  encour- 
age citizens  to  settle  and  occupy  the  public  lands. 
This  class  of  population  had  always  been  esteemed 
highly  meritorious,  and  the  exclusive  right  to  purchase 
at  private  sale  was  extended  to  them  in  consideration 
of,  and  as  a  reward  for,  the  services  they  had  rendered 
by  these  settlements,  in  testing  the  value  and  product- 
iveness of  the  soil ;  and  in  aflbrding  facilities  to  pur- 
chasers to  examine  it.^ 

Notwithstanding  this  claim  of  Alabama  to  jurisdic- 
tion of  her  State  laws  over  the  Creek  territory,  and 
notwithstanding  the  fact  that  the  "  treaty "  doctrine 
had  been  exploded  for  sevet^l  years,  and  the  pre-emp- 
tion rights  of  settlers  had  been  respected  for  thirty 
years,  the  Federal  Government  announced  its  purpose 
to  remove  the  so-called  "  intruders  "  upon  Creek  terri- 
tory, numbering  now  twenty-five  thousand  souls,  by  the 
strong  arm  of  military  force. 

Alabama  had  sustained  President  Jackson  in  his 
contest  with  South  Carolina  on  the  tariff  question, 
and  the  Governor  of  the  State,  John  Gayle,  had  been 
elected  to  the  executive  chair  as  an  opponent  of  the 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.      183 

theory  of  nullification ;  but,  notwithstanding  the  ardent 
desire  of  the  people  of  the  gulf  country  to  strengthen 
the  Union,  they  were  constantly  met  by  stubborn  facts 
which  tended  to  repress  that  desire.  Governor  Gayle 
had  no  disposition  to  bring  about  a '  collision  between 
the  Federal  Government  and  the  State  of  Alabama, 
but  the  theory  as  to  the  treaty-making  and  commerce- 
regulating  powers  of  the  General  Government,  as  ap- 
plied to  Indian  tribes  and  lands,  was  so  repugnant  to 
the  rights  of  the  States  and  to  the  interests  of  the  peo- 
ple, that  he  was  borne  along  by  the  same  current  of 
argument  and  events  which  carried  Governor  Troup  to 
the  edge  of  battle.  The  honest  and  patriotic  spirit 
which  actuated  the  Governor  of  Alabama  is  exhibited 
in  his  letter  dated  at  Tuscaloosa,  October  2d,  1833, 
and  addressed  to  Lewis  Cass,  Secretary  of  War.  In 
that  letter  he  says : 

''  If  the  General  Government  have  the  right  to  regu- 
*'  late  the  conduct  of  our  people  in  relation  to  their 
"  land — if  it  can  rightfully  expel  a  citizen  who  tres- 
^*  passes  upon  the  landed  possession  of  his  neighbor,  by 
"  the  summary  interposition  of  a  military  guard,  with- 
"  out  even  the  forms  of  military  investigation,  what  is 
"  to  restrain  it  from  the  exercise  of  the  same  power  in 
"  relation  to  trespassers  upon  personal  property  ?  From 
"  this  the  transition  would  be  easy  to  the  taking  cog- 
'-'  nizance  of  all  irregularities,  misdemeanors,  and  crimes, 
"  the  right  to  punish  which,  has  heretofore  been  con- 
"  sidered  as  belonging  exclusively  to  the  State  tribu- 
"  nals.  If,  by  the  treaty-making  power,  the  ordinary 
"  operation  of  our  laws  upon  the  persons  and  property 
"  of  our  own  citizens  can  be  suspended,  as  will  be  the 
"  case  if  the  5th  article  of  the  treaty  is  executed  in 
"  the  mode  prescribed  in  your  late  order  to  the  marshal, 
"the  whole  field  of  State  jurisdiction  may  be  consid- 


184  THE  OEABLE  OP  THE  CONf'EBEtlACIY. 

"  ered  as  occupied ;  and  State  sovereignty^  the  reserved 
"  rights  of  the  States,  <^c.,  are  but  unmeaning  sounds, 
"  totally  unworthy  of  serious  consideration. 

"  I  know  that  these  terms  are  used  by  many  as  mere 
"cant  expressions,  and  that  they  have  been  brought 
"into  disrepute  by  the  extravagant  pretensions  and 
"  absurd  doctrines  of  a  sister  State  ?  but  they  imply 
"  things  that  are  still  worth  preserving,  and  as  long  as 
"  the  blessings  of  this  Union  are  justly  appreciated, 
"  they  will  command  the  best  and  highest  exertions  of 
"  the  patriot.  It  is  often  difficult  to  trace,  with  precise 
"'  accuracy,  the  boundary  which  separates  the  jurisdic- 
"  tion  of  the  State  and  Federal  Governments.  We  can 
"  at  all  times,  however,  determine  nearly  where  it  lies. 
"  But  this  treaty  is  for  giving  it  a  new  direction.  It 
"  crosses  the  Hne  designated  in  the  Constitution,  at 
"  right  angles,  and  runs  into  the  very  heart  and  centre 
"  of  our  domestic  concerns. 

"But,  sir,  there  is  another  view  of  this  subject, 
"  which  will  expose  in  a  hght  still  more  glaring,  the 
"  utter  incompatibility  of  this  treaty  with  the  jurisdic- 
"  tive  rights  of  the  State  of  Alabama. 

"  As  before  observed,  the  right  of  extending  our 
"  laws  over  the  country  from  which  our  people  are 
"  ordered  to  be  expelled,  is  admitted  to  the  fullest 
"  extent.  This  necessarily  implies  the  right  of  employ- 
"  ing  the  means  that  are  indispensible  to  its  exercise. 
'*  What  are  these  means  ?  As  enumerated  in  the  Con- 
"  stitution  of  this  State  and  the  laws  made  in  pursu- 
"  ance  thereof,  they  are,  that  the  State  shall  be  laid  off 
"  into  counties,  and  convenient  circuits,  that  the  circuit 
"  courts  shall  be  held  in  each  county  at  least  twice  in 
"  every  year,  that  the  counties  shall  be  divided  into 
"  small  districts,  in  each  of  which  there  shall  be  ap- 
"  pointed  two  justices  of  the  peace  and  two  constables, 
"  that  there  shall  be,  in  each  circuit,  a  judge  of  the 
"  circuit  court,  who  shall  reside  in  his  circuit,  that  there 
"  shall  be  for  each  county  a  judge  of  the  county  court, 


THE  CRADLE  OP  TITF/CONFEDERAOY.  IBS 

"  that  there  shall  be  also  in  each  county,  a  sheriff, 
"  clerks  of  the  circuit  and  county  courts,  a  coroner, 
"  notaries  public,  commissioners  of  roads  and  revenue, 
"  &c.;  and  that  there  shall  be  summoned,  previous  to 
"  every  circuit  court,  a  competent  number  of  grand  and 
"  petit  jurors,  and  a  like  number  of  petit  jurors  for  the 
"  county  courts.  All  these  ministers  of  our  law  are 
"  required  to  reside  in  the  counties  to  which  their  office 
"  belongs.  These  are  the  ordinary  means  by  which  our 
'^  State  government  is  put  in  operation,  and  efiect  given 
"  to  our  laws.  And  yet  the  late  instructions  to  the 
"  marshal  absolutely  prohibit  the  use  of  them. 

"  The  General  Government  has  not  only  admitted 
"  the  right  of  Alabama  to  extend  her  jurisdiction 
"  over  the  ceded  country,  but  it  has  invited  and  encour- 
"  aged  such  extension  by  sundry  documents  to  which 
"  it  is  unnecessary  to  refer.  No  sooner,  however,  is  the 
"  country  organized  and  the  necessary  steps  taken  to 
"  this  end,  than  an  armed  forced  is  collected  on  the 
"  banks  of  the  Chattahoochee  for  the  purpose  of  expel- 
"  ling  from  this  large  and  flourishing;  section  of  the 
"  State  all  '  white  persons,'  including  of  course  all  civil 
"  officers  and  other  persons  whose  agency  is  necessary 
"  to  the  execution  of  our  laws. 

"  We  win  have  no  power  to  punish  any  offences 
"  committed  by  the  Indians,  or  to  subject  them  in  any 
'•'  respect  to  the  restraints  of  the  law,  because  our 
"  courts  will  have  been  suppressed  in  all  the  counties  in 
"  which  they  reside.  Now,  sir,  if  your  order  be  car- 
"  ried  into  effect,  will  not  an  instance  have  occurred  in 
"  our  country,  and  the  first  instance,  too,  of  the  gov- 
"  ernment  of  a  State  being  put  down  and  destroyed,  in 
"  nine  of  its  counties,  by  military  force  ?  Will  not  the 
"  alarming  spectacle  be  exhibited  of  the  laws  of  one  of  the 
"  States  of  this  Union,  in  their  ordinary  operation,  being 
"  compelled  to  yield  in  time  of  profound  peace,  to  the 
"  dominion  of  the  sword — to  give  way  to  the  capricious 
"  will  of  a  deputy  marshal,  whose  favorite   modes  of 


186      THE  CRADLE  OP  THE  CONFEDERACY* 

"  punishment  seem  to  be  the  conflagration  of  dwellings 
"  and  the  application  of  the  bayonet. 

"  I  respectfiilly  request  that  this  project,  so  fatal  in 
"  its  tendency  to  civil  liberty,  and  so  directly  subver- 
"  sive  of  the  acknowledged  rights  and  sovereignty  of 
"  the  State  of  Alabama,  be  abandoned.  1  protest 
"against  it  as  unconstitutional  interference  with  our 
*^  local  and  internal  affairs,  and  as  a  measure  of  revolt- 
"  ing  injustice  and  oppression  towards  that  portion  of 
"our  inhabitants  who  have  not  injured  the  Indians. 
"  Put  away,  sir,  the  sword  which  has  been  unneces- 
"  sarily  and  too  quickly  drawn  against  this  large  and 
^'  unoffending  community.  It  is  the  appropriate  arbiter 
"  in  contests  of  ambition,  but  not  in  questions  of  con- 
"  stitutional  right.  It  is  not  to  be  forgotten  that  the 
"  American  people,  on  a  recent  occasion,  pronounced 
"  emphatically,  that  questions  of  jurisdiction  between 
"  the  foreign  and  domestic  branches  of  our  government, 
"  are  to  be  settled  by  the  tribunals  which  the  Constitu- 
"  tion  vests  with  the  power  of  expounding  the  laws. 
"  To  these  tribunals  I  appeal  on  behalf  of  the  good 
'^  people  of  this  State." 

In  August,  1833,  a  citizen  of  the  county  of  Russell, 
by  the  name  of  Owens,  was  killed  by  a  party  of  soldiers 
who  had  been  placed  under  the  direction  of  the  deputy 
marshal  for  the  Southern  District  of  Alabama,  for  the 
purpose  of  removing  from  the  Creek  country  such  per- 
sons as  had  intruded  upon  Indian  possessions.  These 
officers  had  previously  made  frequent  incursions  with 
the  soldiers  of  the  United  States,  and  their  action,  after 
the  murder  of  Owens,  kindled  an  excitement  that 
rapidly  extended  over  the  whole  of  the  new  counties, 
and  in  some  degree,  throughout  the  State.  Governor 
Gayle  was  at  once  satisfied  that  the  mode  adopted  by 
the  Government  to  carry  the  stipulation  of  the  treaty 
into  effect,  and  to  evict  intruders,  could  not  fail  to  pro- 


THE  CRADLE  OF  TflE  CONFEDERACY.      187 

duce  serious  and  unpleasant  difficulties,  and  that  it 
would  lead  to  unhappy,  and  perhaps  dangerous 
excesses. 

He  wrote  to  the  Secretary  of  War  protesting  against 
the  action  of  the  soldiery,  but  received  no  other 
response  than  that  the  settlers  must  be  removed. 

The  greatest  agitation  existed  in  the  new  counties. 
Everywhere  public  meetings  were  called,  at  which  was 
represented  the  incalculable  injury  in  which  their  re- 
moval would  involve  them.  It  was  perceived,  when 
the  business  of  burning  houses  and  delivering  crops  to 
the  chiefs  should  commence,  that  the  exasperated  feel- 
ings of  the  people  would  urge  them  to  stand  by  their 
wives,  their  children  and  their  property,  that  bloodshed 
would  be  the  inevitable  consequence,  and  that  many 
valuable  lives  would  be  lost.  In  the  meantime,  the 
troops  of  the  United  States  had  taken  their  position  at 
Fort  Mitchell,  and  active  preparations  were  making  to 
move  in  upon  the  settlers.  At  this  period,  apparently 
so  gloomy,  the  Governor  issued  a  proclamation  to  the 
inhabitants  of  the  new  counties,  recommending  and  ex- 
horting them  to  look  with  unshaken  confidence  to  the 
law  for  protection,  to  submit  to  any  process  from  the 
courts  of  the  United  States,  and  to  abstain  from  at- 
tacks or  unlawful  violence  towards  the  Indians.  The 
civil  officers  were  advised  to  issue,  promptly,  all  neces- 
sary process  for  the  apprehension  of  offenders,  and  the 
people  generally  were  instructed  to  look  to  the  courts 
as  affording  more  certain  protection  than  they  could 
expect  from  a  confused  and  disorderly  resort  to  arms. 

This  step  had  the  effect,  at  once,  to  quiet  the  citizens, 
to  inspire  confidence  in  the  efficacy  of  the  laws,  and  to 
put  a  stop  to  the  contemplated  movement  of  the  troops; 


188      THE  CRADLE  OP  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

thus  affording,  says  Governor  Gayle,  "  a  practical  and 
"  impressive  illustration  of  the  great  truths  so  often  and 
"  so  ably  advocated  by  the  President  himself — that  the 
"Constitution  of  the  United  States,  and  the  constitutions 
"  and  laws  of  the  several  States,  as  they  are  understood 
"  by  the  common  sense  of  mankind^  are  sufficient  for 
"  any  emergency,  and  that  the  laws  in  their  usual  and 
"  customary  operation  will  stay  the  hand  of  encroach- 
"  ment,  in  whatever  quarter  it  may  appear." 

The  grand  jury  of  Russell  county  returned  a  bill  of 
indictment  for  murder  against  the  soldiers  and  officers 
who  were  concerned  in  the  death  of  Hardeman  Owens, 
and  application  in  due  form  was  made  to  the  command- 
ing officer  at  Fort  Mitchell  to  deliver  them  over  to  the 
civil  authorities.  The  application  was  rejected.  The 
Governor,  in  his  message  to  the  General  Assembly, 
November  19,  1833,  said:  "The  officers  and  troops 
"  of  the  United  States,  at  this  post,  have  set  our  laws 
"and  our  courts  at  defiance,  and  the  power  of  the 
"  county  is  not  sufficient  to  arrest  the  offenders. 
"  Though  full  power  is  conferred  on  the  executive  by 
"  the  Constitution,  to  call  forth  the  militia  in  cases  of 
"  this  kind,  yet  sincerely  desirous  of  avoiding  all  col- 
"  lision  with  the  Government  or  any  of  its  officers — 
"  and  not  doubting  that  they  would  be  ordered  to  be 
"  delivered  up  for  trial — I  have  deemed  it  unnecessary 
"  to  take  any  other  step  than  transmit  the  despatches 
"  to  the  War  Department,  for  consideration  of  the 
"  President,  which  was  done  on  the  23d  ult." 

The  Secretary  of  War,  in  a  letter  to  Senators  King 
and  Clay,  of  Alabama,  as  early  as  December,  1832, 
had  distinctly  acquiesced  in  the  continuance  of  the  so- 
called  intruders  upon  the  Creek  lands,  provided  they 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.      189 

interfered  with  no  Indian  rights.      Mr.  Cass  had  said  : 

'^  Taking  into  view  the  facts  that  the  season  for  agri- 
"  cultural  labor  will  not  arrive  for  some  time — that  the 
"  surveys  are  nearly  completed,  and  that  as  soon  as 
'^they  are  received,  the  locations  of  the  individual 
"  reservations  will  be  made,  and  the  tract  selected  for 
"  each  will  be  assigned  and  delivered  to  him,  I  do  not 
"  see  that  any  injury  would  result  to  the  Indians,  by 
"  permitting  those  persons  who  obtained  peaceable  pos- 
'^  session  of  the  land  on  which  they  live,  and  do  not 
"  retain  it  to  the  exclusion  of  any  Indian,  justly 
"  entitled  to  it,  to  occupy  those  tracts  till  the  several 
"  selections  are  made.  If,  however,  any  of  them  are 
"  selected  for  the  Indians,  it  will  be  expected  that  the 
"  occupants  relinquish  possession,  within  thirty  days 
"after  such  selection  is  made.  This  arrangement 
"  seems  to  me  to  be  an  equitable  one,  and  I  trust  will 
"  be  satisfactory  to  all  persons  interested  in  the  subject. 
^'  I  hope,  further,  that  after  the  locations  are^  made, 
"  quick  possession  will  be  relinquished  to  the  Indians, 
"  so  th^  the  Government  will  not  be  compelled  to  resort 
"  for  that  purpose  to  measures  which  I  am  anxious  to 
"  avoid  " 

Letters  of  similar  tenor  had  been  addressed  to  Hon- 
orable Gabriel  Moore  and  other  citizens  of  Alabama. 

Referring  to  the  letters  of  the  Secretary,  Governor 
Gayle  placed  the  responsibility,  for  the  condition  of 
afiairs,  upon  the  Federal  Government,  using  this 
language : 

"  After  the  publication  of  those  letters,  no  one,  what- 
"  ever  his  respect  for  the  laws  and  for  the  rights  of 
"  others,  could  have  supposed  he  was  doing  wrong  or 
"  violating  any  of  the  duties  of  a  good  citizen,  by 
"  making  a  settlement  in  this  part  of  the  State;  and  it 
"  is  submitted  to  the  impartial  judgment  of  all  candid 
<^  minds,  whether  the  great  body  of  the  settlers  have 


190      THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

"  not  been  involved  in  their  present  difficulties  without 
"  any  fault  on  their  part. 

"  When  the  act  of  the  last  session  was  passed,  laying 
"  this  country  off  into  counties,  the  letters  of  the  Sec- 
"  I'otary  of  War  were  before  the  Legislature. 

"  Without  this  measure,  the  people  would  have  been 
"  deprived  of  separate  representation  for  the  next  six 
"  years,  and  it  was  obvious  that  our  laws  could  not  be 
"  made  to  operate  with  effect  upon  a  population  so 
"  large  and  so  rapidly  increasing.  The  policy  and  the 
"  views  of  the  administration  in  relation  to  the  Indians 
^'  were  made  known,  and  the  act,  while  under  considera- 
"  tion,  was  regarded  as  being  in  strict  accordance  there- 
"with.  The  treaty  extinguished  the  Indian  title  to 
'Mand,  and  the  Indians  had  become  citizens  of  the 
"  State,  and  amenable  to  its  laws,  by  their  own  con- 
"  sent,  thereby  obviating  all  objections  growing  out  of 
"  our  former  relations  with  their  people.  All  saw  and 
"  acknowledged  the  necessity  of  the  measure,  and  none 
"  objected  to  it.  The  Jeneral  Assembly  were  influ- 
"  enced  in  their  course  by  considerations  of  public  duty 
"  and  pubUc  policy,  and  it  certainly  never  entered  the 
"  mind  of  any  one  that  they  were  encroaching  upon 
"  the  property  rights  of  the  United  States. 

"  It  is  difficult  to  anticipate  the  effects  that  would 
^'  result  from  the  abolition  of  these  counties.  All  crim- 
"  inals  and  persons  indicted  for  offences,  will  be  dis- 
"  charged ;  all  suits  will  be  discontinued ;  the  courts 
"  and  all  offices  abolished  ;  officer^  will  lose  their  places, 
"  and  in  fine,  such  is  the  intimate  coimexion  between 
"  these  and  the  other  counties  of  the  State,  that  to 
"  destroy  them  would  embarrass  and  derange  the 
"administration  of  justice  generally,  and  introduce 
"  perplexing  confusion  through  the  whole  machinery  of 
"  the  State  government." 

The  conclusion  of  Governor  Gayle's  message  indi- 
cates the  change  of  political  sentiment  which  was  being 
brought  about  in  Alabama  by  the  new  pretensions  of 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.      191 

the  Federal  Government.  So  long  as  the  question  of 
usurpation  agitated  a  sister  State,  the  people  were  con- 
tent to  follow  those  leaders  who  exalted  the  Union,  and 
strengthened  Federal  power ;  but  now  that  the  usurpa- 
tion had  come  home  to  themselves,  we  find  an  execu- 
tive message  using  this  language : 

"  In  the  present  controversy,  my  situation  has  not 
"  been  free  from  difficulty  and  embarrassment.  Yield- 
"  ing  as  I  had  done,  for  the  last  ten  years,  a  sincere 
'^  and  disinterested  support  to  the  distinguished  citizen 
"  who  now  fills  the  presidency,  it  was  with  the  utmost 
"  reluctance  that  I  felt  myself  constrained  to  oppose 
"  the  course  he  had  adopted.  The  country,  too,  had 
"  but  recently  emerged  from  the  gloom  of  a  threatened 
"  conflict  with  a  sister  State,  and  it  was  foreseen  that 
"  even  a  difference  of  opinion  with  the  administration 
"  would  tend  to  awaken  the  fears  and  alarm  the  appre- 
"  hensions  of  many  good  citizens. 

"  The  suppression  of  the  State  government,  or  the 
"  maintenance  of  its  laws  in  eight  flourishing  and  pop- 
"  ulcus  counties,  were  the  alternatives  presented,  and  I 
"  embraced  that  to  which  I  was  directed  by  the  solemn 
"obligation  1  had  assumed  as  the  chief  magistrate  of 
"  one  of  the  independent  States  of  this  Union.  With- 
''  out  resorting  to  force,  which  I  cannot  believe  neces- 
"  sary,  unless  the  process  of  our  courts  be  altogether 
"  disregarded,  I  have  maintained  the  integrity  of  these 
"  counties  and  kept  the  laws  steadily  in  operation." 

Before  this  controversy  had  reached  the  point  when 
it  was  suggested  that  force  might  be  used  to  protect 
the  civil  organization  of  the  eight  counties  against  the 
pretensions  of  the  War  Department,  Governor  Gayle 
had  been  re-elected  to  the  executive  chair  without 
opposition.  In  delivering  his  inaugural  address,  De- 
cember, 1833,  before  the  General  Assembly,  the  gov- 
ernor declared  that  to  execute  the  order  of  removal, 


192      THE  CEADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

"  power  is  claimed  to  suppress  by  military  force  the 
''  government  of  the  State  in  eight  of  its  counties,  to 
"  regulate,  at  the  point  of  the  bayonet,  trespasses  by 
'^  our  citizens  upon  the  possessions  of  each  other,  and 
"  in  effect  to  establish  military  tribunals  as  substitutes 
"•  for  our  courts."  Commenting  on  this  inaugural,  the 
Mobile  Register,  of  date  December  6,  1833,  defied  any 
man  in  South  Carolina  to  indite  a  better  nullifying 
paragraph  :  "And  yet,"  said  that  journal,  "his  excel- 
"lency,  not  ten  days  before,  took  occasion  to  denounce 
"  nullification  in  good  set  terms ;  perhaps  he  has  a  pre- 
"  judice  against  the  phrase ;  it  may  be  that  he  thinketh 
"  it  unpopular,  or  that  a  rose  by  any  other  name 
"  would  smell  as  sweet." 

A  special  committee  was  raised  by  the  General  As- 
sembly to  report  upon  the  grave  matters,  submitted  in 
the  message  and  inaugural. 

Near  the  end  of  December,  the  chairman  of  this 
committee,  Mr.  Breen,  made  their  report  and  submitted 
the  following  resolutions  for  the  consideration  and 
adoption  of  the  House  : 

1st.  Resolved,  That  the  order  of  the  Secretary  of 
War,  directing  the  removal,  by  military  force,  of  the 
whole  white  population,  from  the  counties  contained  in 
the  territory  ceded  by  the  Creek  Indians,  was  unneces- 
sary for  the  protection  of  the  Indians,  that  its  execu- 
tion would  be  destructive  of  the  prosperity  of  the  citi- 
zens, subversive  of  the  jurisdiction  of  the  State,  and 
ought  not  to  be  carried  into  effect. 

2d.  Resolved,  That  in  the  opinion  of  this  General 
Assembly,  the  Act  of  Congress,  of  1807,  was  not 
intended  to  have  effect  within  the  limits  of  States  of  the 
Union;  that  the  execution  of  the  provisions  of  said 
Act,  by  the  military  force,  would  be  subversive  of  the 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.      193 

rights  of  the  citizens,  destructive  of  free  government, 
and  incompatible  with  the  jurisdiction  and  sovereignty 
of  the  States. 

3d.  Resolved,  That  the  General  Government  has  no 
constitutional  power  to  interfere  with  the  internal  muni- 
cipal affairs  of  the  State^  that  when  the  Government 
has  parted  with  the  public  lands,  it  has  no  further  con- 
trol over  them,  and  that  trespasses  by  the  citizens  of 
the  same  State,  upon  the  property  of  each  other  can  be 
regulated  and  corrected  alone  by  the  laws  and  authori- 
ties of  such  State. 

4th.  Resolved,  That  the  power  conferred  by  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States  upon  the  President 
and  two-thirds  of  the  Senate  to  make  treaties  is  limited 
and  restrained  by  the  grants  of  power  therein  con- 
tained, and  that  all  treaties  which  encroach  upon  the 
reserved  rights  of  the  States  are  usurpations  of  power, 
subversive  of  the  Government  and  destructive  of  civil 
liberty. 

5th.  Resolved,  That  this  General  Assembly  do  ap- 
prove of  the  principles  avowed,  and  the  propositions 
assumed  by  the  Governor  of  this  State,  in  his  procla- 
mation dated  on  the  7th  day  of  October  last;  ad- 
dressed to  the  citizens  of  the  Creek  country  and  in  his 
recent  correspondence  with  the  Secretary  of  War,  and 
that  he  is  hereby  authorized  and  requested  to  see 
that  the  laws  and  jurisdiction  of  the  State,  be  main- 
tained in  foil  force  and  effect  in  the  said  counties. 

As  indicating  the  wide-spread  interest  manifested  by 
citizens  of  other  States,  both  North  and  South,  in  the 
progress  of  this  controversy,  the  Richmond  Enquirer 
used  this  language :  "  We  know  of  no  event,  which 
"would  cover  the  friends  of  our  Federal  Institutions 
"  with  so  deep  a  gloom,  as  the  actual  coUision  between 
"  the  Federal  and  the  State  authorities  in  this  instance, 
''  and  the  shedding  of  the  blood  of  our  fellow  citizens 
"  in  a  civil  contest  between  the  troops  of  the  United 


194      THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  COKFEBERACY. 

"  States  and  the  militia  of  Alabama.     Here  is  a  Presi- 

"  dent  of  the  United  States,  who  has  distinguished  him- 

"  self  by  his  manly  vindication  of  the  rights  of  Geor- 

"  gia  in  the  case  of  the  Cherokee  Indians.     We  should 

"  expect  from  him  a  course  in  relation  to  the  Creeks, 

*^  which  may  manifest  his  strict  respect  for  the  rights  of 

"  Alabama.     Here,  also,  is  the  Governor  of  a  State, 

"  who  has  avowed  himself  one  of  the  most  decided 

^^ opponents   of   nulHfication,   in   the  whole  southern 

"  country.    Who  better  calculated  to  settle  this  dispute 

"  than  these  two  citizens  ?      To  respect,  on  the  one 

"  hand,  the  sacred  and  inalienable  rights  of  the  States, 

"in  relation   to   State    jurisdiction    over  the    Indian 

"  tribes,  and  on  the  other,  to  avoid  all  rash  and  hasty 

"  recourse  to  violent  measures  against  the  agents  of  the 

"  United  States.     We  put  it  freely  to  all,  that,  if  under 

"  such  favorable  circumstances,  a  direct  issue  should  be 

"  made  up  between  the  two ;  if  blood  should  be  shed 

"  in  this  civil  war ;  how  much  would  it  gratify  the  ene- 

"  mies  of  our  Federal  system,  who  predict  that  the 

"  machine  is  too  complicated  to  play  freely,  and  that 

"  the  parties  must   inevitably  clash  with  each  other  ? 

"  And  what  disconsolation  would  it  not  impart  to  the 

"  real  friends  of  the  Republic  ?  " 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.      196 

Governor  Gayle,  among  other  letters  of  encourage- 
ment received  the  following*  from  a  number  of  young 
men  of  Hudson,  New  York: 

Hudson,  New  York,> 
Dec.  29,  1833.     ^ 
To  His  Excellency,. 

John  Gayle, 

Governor  of  Alabama. 
Sir.  -A  number  of  young  men  of  this  city,  sensible 
of  the  injustice  with  which  Alabama  is  threatened  in 
the  proposed  forcible  removal  of  the  settlers  from  the 
Indian  territory,  have  appointed  us  a  committee  to 
offer  their  and  our  services  to  your  Excellency  in  the 
anticipated  contest.  We  propose  to  raise  a  company 
of  volunteers,  to  act  as  the  service  may  require.  If 
you,  sir,  are  willing  to  receive  our  aid,  please  inform  us 
as  soon  as  convenient. 

With  great  respect. 

Your  most  obedient  servants, 
J.  Vanvleck, 

N.  T.  ROSSETER, 

E.  Clark, 

F.  N.  Cady, 
C.  S.  Jordan, 
R.  H.  Burton. 

The  committee  sustained  their  resolutions  with  an 
able  report,  in  which  they  held,  that  to  drive  out  the 
30,000  white  settlers  at  the  point  of  the  bayonet,  would 
be  a  cruel  and  unparalleled  usurpation ;  that  a  govern- 
ment whose  laws  are  carried  into  effect  without  the 

*Thi8  letter  is  among  the  correspondence  of  the  Jate  Governor  Qayle» 
kindly  submitted  to  the  author  by  his  accomplished  daughter,  Mrs. 
Thomas  L.  Bayne,  of  New  Orleans. 


196      THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

intervention  of  courts,  by  military  authority,  is  a  des- 
potism, by  whatever  name  it  may  be  called;  that 
whether  a  tract  of  land  is  public  or  private  property  is 
strictly  a  judicial  question  which  every  citizen  has  a 
right  to  have  investigated  according  to  the  known  and 
established  forms  of  law  ;  that  .the  .doctrine  that  the 
rightful  jurisdiction  of  a  State  can  be  taken  away  by 
virtue  of  a  treaty  has  been  so  uniformly  repudiated  by 
President  Jackson,  both  by  his  declarations  and  by  his 
practices,  that  it  could  not  with  any  propriety  be 
advanced  by  the  Secretary  of  War ;  that  such  a  doc- 
trine has  not  been  seriously  contended  for  by  the  great 
Federal  party  of  our  country,  since  the  period  of  Jay's 
treaty,  and  it  is  to  be  regretted  that  any  attempt 
should  be  made  to  renew  it  now  ?  If  the  rights  of  the 
State,  urged  the  committee,  can  be  bartered  away  by 
the  President  and  Senate  under  the  form  of  a  treaty, 
there  could  have  been  no  object,  in  inserting  any  pro- 
visions in  the  Constitution  limiting  the  General  Govern- 
ment to  certain  specific  objects  for  the  security  of  the 
State  and  the  people.  According  to  such  a  doctrine  it 
would  be  in  the  power  of  President  and  Senate  to 
change  the  form  of  our  government. 

It  was  the  earnest  desire  of  the  Alabama  Represen- 
tatives in  Congress,  who,  with  Governor  Gayle,  had 
opposed  the  nullification  measures  of  South  Carolina, 
that  there  should  be  no  breach  with  the  President. 
William  R.  King  and  Gabriel  Moore  of  the  Senate  and 
Messrs.  John  Murphy,  Dixon  li.  Lewis  and  Clement 
C  Clay  of  the  House,  exerted  themselves  to  bring 
about  a  compromise  of  the  matters  in  controversy. 
Upon  reaching  Washington,  they  hastened  to  call  upon 
th^  President,  and  to  lay  before  him  the  distress  that 


*flS  ORADLE  o:p  the  CONlPEDiERACY.  197 

would  be  caused  by  a  strict  compliance  with  the  order 
of  removal.  While  conciliating  the  President  by  remov- 
ing from  his  mind  the  idea  that  the  Governor  of  Ala- 
bama was  desirous  of  following  in  the  steps  of  South 
Carolina,  they,  at  the  same  time,  opened  the  way  for 
an  adjustment,  by  assuring  Governor  Gayle  that  the 
executive  order  was  never  intended  to  be  carried  info 
full  effect,  but  was  simply  framed  to  cover  every  case 
that  might  possibly  arise  under  the  treaty.  The  lan- 
guage of  Ex-Governor  Murphy  to  Governor  Gayle  was  : 
"  I  beUeve  it  was  never  intended  to  expel  all  the  peo- 
"  pie  from  the  ceded  Creek  territory.  This  would  evi- 
"  dently  be  carrying  the  thing  beyond  the  justice  or 
"  necessity  of  the  case.  The  order  issued  was  general 
"  in  its  nature  to  apply  to  what  had  taken  place,  or 
"  might  possibly  afterwards  take  place,  and  to  cover 
"  every  stipulation  of  the  treaty  intended  for  the  benefit 
^'  of  the  Indians.  It  was  merely  asserting  the  control 
"  of  the  Government  over  the  subject,  should  there 
"  arise  the  necessity  to  exercise  it ;  but  evidently  the 
"  execution  of  the  order  would  be  governed  by  that 
"  necessity.  Why  remove  the  whole  population  while 
"  only  a  few  individuals  have  been  guilty  of  trespass, 
"  and  indeed  while  the  Indians  for  whose  benefit  all  this 
"  was  done  had  no  desire  that  any  but  a  very  few 
"  should  be  removed  ?  It  never  could  have  been 
"  necessary,  and  therefore  could  never  have  been  in- 
''  tended."  Mr.  Murphy  continues  in  his  letter  of 
December  3d,  1833  :  "  The  nuUifiers  have  endeavored 
"  to  make  much  of  this  excitement.  They  entertained 
"  great  hopes  from  it  for  their  cause." 

Early  in  December,  1 833,  Mr.  King  called  upon  the 
President  and  received  assurances  that  "  no  measures 


198      THK  OUADLE  OF  THE  CONFEBERACY. 

"  should  be  taken  for  the  removal  of  the  settlers  who 
"  had  not  interfered  with  the'possessions  of  the  Indians," 
and  these  assurances  were  at  once  conveyed  to  Gov- 
ernor Gayle.  On  the  next  day  Representatives  Clay 
and  Samuel  W.  Mardis  accompanied  Senator  King  upon 
a  visit  to  the  Secretary  of  War,  Lewis  Cass,  and  rep- 
resented to  him,  as  Mr.  King  and  Mr.  Murphy  had 
already  done  to  the  President,  the  condition  of  affairs 
in  Alabama.  The  Secretary  acceded  to  the  views  and 
wishes  of  the  delegation,  and  requested  them  to  submit 
to  him  an  address  in  writing.  The  address  was  drawn 
up  and  submitted  to  the  Secretary.  The  President  ap- 
pointed Francis  S.  Key,  author  of  "the  Star-spangled 
"Banner,"  a  commissioner,  to  visit  Alabama  and  adjust 
all  the  questions  in  dispute.  Mr.  Key  was  a  man  of 
most  captivating  address,  learned  in  the  law,  of  high 
personal  character,  and  great  prudence  of  action.'  A 
better  agent  could  not  have  been  selected  to  mediate  in 
a  dispute  which  had  almost  reached  the  point  of  armed 
collision. 

To  prepare  Governor  Gayle  for  the  conciliatory  com- 
munications borne  by  Mr.  Key,  Mr.  Murphy  reviewed 
the  whole  controversy  elaborately  in  a  letter  to  the 
Governor,  and  closed  by  intinlating  that  his  course 
would  lead  to  a  breach  between  him  and  President 
Jackson,  and  the  result  would  be  that  he  would  find 
himself  drifting  out  of  the  Repubhcan  party  and  into 
the 'ranks  of  the  opposition.  Writing,  February  28, 
1 834,  in  reply  to  Murphy,  Governor  Gayle  said  :  "As 
"  straws  show  which  way  the  wind  blows,  some  small 
"  occurrences,  too  unimportant  to  mention,  have  pro- 
"  ceeded  towards  me  from  the  President,  which  induce 
"  me  to  suppose  he  is  tired  of  the  Creek  controversy, 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.      199 

"  and  wishes  to  mend  the  breach  which  that  affair  has 
"  produced.  My  feelings  have  had  no  effect  to  change 
"  the  favorable  hght  in  which  I  have  always  regarded 
"  the  prominent  measures  of  General  Jackson's  admin- 
*•'  istration,  or  his  qualifications  and  fitness  for  the  office 
"  he  fills,  but  I  can  never  yield  him  the  zealous  and 
"  active  support,  which  I  have  heretofore  extended, 
"  under  the  charges  of  corrupt  speculation  and  furnish- 
"  ing  a  combination  with  the  nullifiers,  which  were  dealt 
"out  against  me  some  time  since  by  the  Globe,  as  it  is 
"understood,  with  the  approbation,  if  not  at  the 
"  instance,  of  the  President." 

A  letter  from  Senator  King  to  Governor  Gayle, 
dated  March  18,  1834,  was  evidently  intended  to  heal 
the  breach  between  the  Governor  and  the  President  and 
to  pave  the  way  for  the  success  of  Mr.  Key's  mission. 
The  Senator  wrote  as  follows : 

"  In  the  controversy  in  which  you  conceived  it  your 
"  duty,  from  your  official  situation,  to  engage  with  the 
"  General  Government,  no  man  knew  better  than  your- 
"  self  the  view  which  I  took  of  the  matter.  Actuated 
**  by  a  strong  feeling  of  personal  and  political  friendship, 
"  I  felt  that  I  could,  without  offence^  speak  to  you 
"plainly  on  a  subject  of  such  absorbing  interest.  I 
"  did  so  in  a  spirit  of  frankness  and  friendship.  I 
"  was,  as  you  know,  anxious  thut  as  far  as  practicable 
'^  all  discussions  should  be  avoided  by  the  legislature, 
"  then  about  to  meet.  I  feared  no  good  would  come 
"  of  it,  and  the  event  has,  I  am  sorry  to  say,  in  some 
"  measure  reahzed  my  apprehensions.  I  saw  Mr.  Key 
"  at  Montgomery,  and  had  a  free  conversation  with 
"  him.  I  did,  I  trust,  ample  justice  to  the  purity  of 
"  your  motives  and  pure  Republican  principles.     I  pre- 


200      THE  CRADLE  OP  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

"  pared  him  to  meet  you  in  the  undisguised  spirit  of 
"  poUtical  confidence  and  personal  respect.  I  took  the 
"  earliest  occasion  to  remove  from  the  mind  of  the 
"President  and  the  authorities  here  any  unfavorable 
"  impression  which  the  excitement  growing  out  of  the 
"  discussion  might  Lave  produced.  I  know  that  I  suc- 
"  ceeded,  as  you  have  some  evidence  in  the  altered 
"  tone  of  the  Secretary  of  War.  As  to  the  publica- 
"  tions  or  strictures  which  appeared  in  the  Globe,  you 
"  must  not  take  them  as  conveying  either  the  senti- 
"  ments  of  the  President  or  of  any  responsible  person 
"  connected  with  the  administration.  The  editor  of 
"  that  paper  is  perfectly  reckless  in .  his  course,  and 
"  although  it  is  considered  in  the  country  as  the  official 
"  paper,  God  help  the  administration,  if  it  is  to  be  held 
"responsible  for  all  of  Blair's  indiscretions.  In  the 
"  very  few  communications  I  made  to  members  of  the 
"  Legislature  while  the  subject  was  under  consideration 
"I  held  but  one  language — 'put  an  end  to  debate; 
"  divide  not  our  party ;  respect  the  feelings  of  our 
"  Governor ;  impair  not  his  well-earned  popularity ; 
"  give  not  currency  and  strength  to  the  doctrines  of 
"  nullification  by  divisions  amongst  ourselves.'  Sir,  no 
"  political  considerations  would  have  induced  me  to 
'*  make  this  plain  detail  of  my  motives  and  conduct 
"  throughout  this  whole  business.  But  I  had  seen  with 
"  deep  regret  statements  intended  no  doubt  to  produce 
"  alienations,  if  not  the  destruction  of  our  ancient  friend- 
''  ship.  The  course  pursued  by  some  of  those  with 
"  whom  I  stand  connected,  but  as  you  know  radically 
"  differing  with  me  on  many  of  the  great  subjects  of 
''  policy  which  mark  the  distinctions  of  party  in  our 
"  country,  was,, no  doubt,  under  the  circumstances,  cal" 


tflE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.      20l 

"culated  to  produce  unpleasant  feelings  for  the 
"  moment.  I  am  happy  to  learn  they  have  passed 
"  away  with  the  occasion  which  called  them  forth." 

It  is  interesting  to  know  that  the  breach  between 
the  President  and  Governor  Gayle  was  never  cured, 
and  that  the  latter,  after  retiring  from  the  gubernatorial 
chair,  threw  his  influence  for  Judge  White  for  Presi- 
dent, as  against  Mr.  Van  Buren,  and  subsequently 
supported  General  Harrison  and  the  Whigs.  He  was 
an  elector  upon  the  Whig  ticket  in  1840,  and  in  1847 
was  elected  by  the  Whig  party  a  Representative  in 
Congress  from  the  Mobile  District.  In  1849  he  was 
appointed  by  President  Taylor,  United  States  District 
Judge  for  Alabama,  which  office  he  held  until  his  death 
in  1859.  In  November,  1 841,  Governor  Gayle  re- 
ceived fifty-five  votes  in  the  Alabama  Legislature  for 
United  States  Senator,  against  seventy-two  for  Mr. 
King. 

Secretary  Cass,  in  pursuance  of  the  modified  views 
of  the  President,  transmitted  to  the  Governor  a.  letter 
informing  him  that  as  soon  as  the  report  of  the  death 
of  0\vens  reached  the  War  Department,  a  communica- 
tion was  sent  to  the  deputy  marshal  informing  him 
that  instructions  had  been  given  the  military  command- 
ing officer  to  facilitate,  by  all  the  means  in  his  power, 
any  investigation  which  the  civil  authorities  might  con- 
sider necessary.  He  supposed,  until  recently,  that 
Major  Mcintosh,  the  officer  in  command,  had  followed 
these  instructions ;  but  it  appears  that  there  was  some 
mistake  in  the  transmission  of  the  orders.  The  Presi- 
dent had  now  instructed  Mcintosh  directly  to  submit 
to  all  legal  process.  The  Secretary  said :  ''  These 
"  orders  were  given  some  days  since,  and  1  have  the 


202      THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

"  honor  to  enclose  you  a  copy  of  them.  I  transmit 
"  also  an  extract  from  the  instructions  to  Mr.  Key,  who 
"  has  been  employed  to  aid  the  District  Attorney  of 
"  the  Southern  District  of  Alabama,  in  the  legal  inves- 
"  tigations  growing  out  of  this  subject,  by  which  you 
"  will  see  that  the  supremacy  of  the  civil  authority  will 
<'  be  asserted  and  maintained  as  far  as  depends  on  the 
'*  executive.  These  orders  and  instructions  will  be  suf- 
"  ficient  to  insure  the  due  submission  of  the  troops  now 
"  in  Alabama,  to  all  legal  process,  and  I  trust  will  be 
"  satisfactory  to  your  excellency." 

Mr.  Key,  in  a  communication,  dated  at  Tuscaloosa 
December  16th,  1833,  to  the  Governor,  informed  him 
that  the  reservations  allotted  to  the  Indians  would  be 
laid  off  by  January  15th,  and- that  the  settlers  upon  all 
the  lands  outside  of  these  allotments  would  be  released 
from  the  stipulations  of  the  treaty,  and  no  longer  sub- 
ject to  removal.  Those  settlers  who  were  upon  the 
reservations  would  have  it  in  their  power  to  purchase 
the  right  of  the  Indians  whose  lands  they  occupy. 

In  view  of  the  early  day  at  which  the  titles  of  the 
settlers  would  be  assured,  and  of  the  flict  that  the  order 
for  removal  was  virtually  withdrawn,  and  the  further 
fact  that  the  jurisdiction  of  the  State  Courts  over  the 
soldiers  who  killed  Owens  was  admitted.  Governor  Gayle 
sent  a  special  message  to  the  General  Assembly, 
December  20th,  in  which  he  said  that  "  the  principal 
"  object  of  this  unpleasant  controversy  having  been 
"  obtained,  by  asserting  and  vindicating  those  great 
"  principles  which  were  established  by  the  Constitution 
"  for  the  security  of  the  people  and  for  the  protection 
"  of  the  States,  in  the  exercise  of  their  rightful  juris- 
'•  diction,  it  cannot  fail  to  be  a  source  of  the  hi«;hest 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  OONFEDERACY.      203 

"  satisfaction  to  our  fellow  citizens  in  these  new  coun- 
"  ties,  that  the  calamity  with  which,  at  one  period  they 
^^  were  threatened,  has  been  averted,  and  of  pride  and 
"  patriotic  exultation  to  our  people  everywhere  that  the 
"  supremacy  of  the  civil  over  the  military  authority 
"  has  been  successfully  maintiiined." 

Mr.  Hopkins,  of  the  House,  in  his  reply  to  the 
advocates  of  the  resolutions  of  Mr.  Beene's  committee, 
said  that  the  modification  of  the  orders  of  the  Secretary 
of  War  as  conveyed  to  Governor  Gayle  by  Mr.  Key^ 
must  satisfy  ninety-nine  out  of  every  hundred  of  the 
people  of  Alabama.  If  this  compromise  were  not 
accepted  and  these  nullifying  resolutions  of  the  com- 
mittee were  carried  out,  there  would  inevitably  be  a 
collision  between  the  State  and  Federal  Government, 
and  Alabama  would  fall  before  the  power  of  the 
national  arms ;  or,  if  successful  in  the  struggle,  she 
would  soon  become  the  prey  to  internal  dissensions  and 
to  ambitious  men.  He  moved,  therefore,  that  the  res- 
olutions be  indefinitely  postponed.  The  vote  was,  33 
lor  postponement  and  34  in  the  negative.  A  motion 
was  then  made  to  lay  the  resolutions  on  the  table. 
The  vote  was,  nay  39,  yea  30.  A  motion  was  then 
made  to  refer  them  to  a  select  committee.  This  motion 
was  adopted  by  a  vote  of,  yea  36,  nay  33.  The  com- 
promise offered  by  Key  having  been  accepted  by  the 
Governor,  and  having  received  the  approbation  of  the 
press  and  of  the  people,  the  select  committee  never 
reported  upon  the  resolutions.  The  controversy 
between  Alabama  and  the  Union  was  not  settled  upon 
principle,  but  was  smothered  by  a  compromise ;  and  the 
people  once  more  witnessed  the  Federal  Government 
yielding  the  point  at  issue  to  the  hostile  demonstrations 
of  the  State. 


CHAPTER  IX. 


The  Federal  Party  Reorganize  upon  the  Slavery  Question — 
Continued  War  upo7i  the  Agricultural  States — Opin- 
ions of  the  Southern  People  as  to  Slavery — The  Mis- 
souri Compromise — The  Slade  Agitation — The  Abo- 
litionistj  George  Thompson — Vietvs  of  England — 
Opinions  of  Jackson^  Marcy,  Clay^  Everett  and  others 
— Drawing  of  the  Geographical  Line,  &c.,  &c. 


"Adverse  fortune  and  ill-judged  policy  had  brought  the  Federal 
party  to  its  end.  Its  leaders  saw  that  all  was  over.  New  and  living 
issues  must  be  sought  for.  Not  without  wisdom  did  they  select  another 
standpoint  and  prepare  to  combat  their  adversaries  in  his  most  vulner- 
able part.  A  compact  and  an  unmistakable  formula,  of  which  the  pur- 
port is  easily  understood,  is  invaluable  as  a  party  war-cry.  To  restrain 
slavery,  and  eventually  to  destroy  it,  became  their  dogma.  It  gathered 
irresistible  power,  because  it  was  in  unison  with  the  sentiments  of  tiie 
times." 

Draper's  Civiii  War  in  America. 

"  The  [Missouri]  question  is  a  mere  party  trick.  The  leaders  of  Fed- 
eralism ore  taking  advantage  of  the  virtuous  feeling  of  the  people  to 
effect  a  division  of  parties  by  a  geographical  line;  they  expect  that  this 
will  ensure  them,  on  local  principles,  the  majority  they  could  never  ob- 
tain on  the  principles  of  Federalism." 

Thomas  Jefferson. 

"  You  are  kindling  a  fire  which  all  the  waters  of  the  ocean  cannot 
extinguish;  it  can  be  extinguished  only  in  blood." 

Thos.  W.  Cobb,  in  Congress,  1819. 


Down  to  the  year  1819,  a  period  of  over  thirty 
years  from  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution  there  had 
been  no  objection  to  the  admission  of  a  State  to  the 
Union  because  ol  the  existence  of  slavery.  Objection 
had  been  made  to  the  Louisiana  purchase  upon  other 
grounds,  but  not  upon  that  of  slavery.      Louisiana, 


206      THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

Mississippi,  Alabama,  Kentucky  and  Tennessee  had  nil 
been  admitted  with  constitutions  recognizing  slavery. 

Down  to  this  period  the  existence  of  slavery  in  a  free 
Republic  had  not  been  held  by  any  large  number  of 
people  to  be  repugnant  to  our  theory  of  government. 
Nowhere  in  the  Union  had  it  been  regarded  as  viola- 
tive of  moral  or  Christian  law,  or  opposed  to  the  rights 
acquired  by  conquest  and  capture.  No  political  party, 
or  fraction  of  a  party,  had  denounced  the  slave- 
holding  States  as  unworthy  members  of  the  Union' 
But  now,  the  Federalists,  casting  about  for  a  new  subject 
upon  which  they  might  rally  their  scattered  forces,  and 
upon  which  they  might  draw  the  hues  around  the  agri- 
cultural States,  seized  upon  the  question  of  slavery. 

The  people  of  the  Southern  Stjites  had  inherited 
their  slaves.  They  had  grown  up  upon  the  plantations 
and  had  passed  from  father  to  son  by  the  laws  of 
descent.  •  The  ancestors  of  these  slaves  had  been 
brought  into  the  Southwest  against  the  wishes  of 
Oglethorpe.  One  of  the  earliest  laws  of  the  colony  of 
Georgia  was  that  forbidding  the  introduction  of  African 
slaves — but  the  greed  of  traders  had  broken  through 
all  laws  until  the  ships  of  Old  England  and  of  New 
England  had  filled  the  South  with  a  vast  number  of 
negroes.  Nothing  in  the  history  of  the  world,  down  to 
the  present  century  had  taught  the  people  of  this 
unhappy  section,  against  whom  had  been  launched  the 
poisonous  weapons  of  a  defeated  political  party,  that 
slavery  was  a  moml  wrong  or  a  social  evil.  They  saw 
it  recognized  by  all  the  ancient  nations,  kingdoms  and 
republics;  by  the  Mosaic  law;  by  the  Roman  empire;  by 
the  Gospel  of  Christ;  by  all  the  more  modern  peoples; 
by  the  councils  of  the  Catholic  church ;  by  the  leaders 


THE  OKADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.  207 

of  the  reformation;  by  English  law  and  custom;  every- 
where throughout  the  world,  in  all  ages  and  climes. 
They  saw  it  recognized  in  the  Federal  Constitution 
which  permitted  the  importation  of  African  slaves  for 
twenty  years  after  its  ratification. 

In  nearly  every  household  throughout  the  South,  if 
there  were  no  other  book,  might  be  found  the  family 
Bible.  That  Bible  told  the  reader  of  Abraham's  slaves, 
bought  with  his  money;  of  the  Angel  of  the  Lord  who 
commanded  the  fugitive  slave,  Hagar,  to  return  to  her 
mistress  and  submit  herself;  of  the  tenth  command- 
ment of  the  Decalogue,  which  spoke  of  the  master's 
property  in  man  servants  and  maid  servants  ;  and  of 
the  .  -  osaic  laws  which  recognized  and  regulated  slavery 
in  its  severest  forms  The  reader  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment looked  in  vain  for  any  allusion  to  slavery  by 
Christ ;  for  any  word  of  censure  for  an  institution  then 
tolerated  throughout  the  world ;  for  any  word,  on  ac- 
count of  it,  of  condemnation  of  Csesar,  whose  empire, 
according  to  the  historian.  Gibbon,  then  embraced  sixty 
millions  of  slaves.  They  read  the  precepts  of  Paul,  in 
which  he  told  the  slaves  to  be  obedient  to  their  masters, 
and  in  which  .he  warned  the  masters  to  give  unto  their' 
slaves  that  which  is  just  and  equal,  since  they  also  had 
a  Master  in  Heaven.  The  preachers  of  the  Gospel 
throughout  the  South,  while  inculcating  lessons  of 
mercy,  justice  and  kindness  between  the  master  and 
slave,  could  not  stultify  themselves  by  denouncing  the 
moral  or  Christian  legality  of  Slavery.  Before  them 
were  the  writings  of  churchmen  from  the  earliest  ages, 
and  nowhere,  down  to  that  period  when  the  wild  orgies 
of  the  French  Revolution  had  upturned  the  founda- 
tions of  society,  could  be  found  any  denial  of  the  rec- 


208  THE   CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

titude  of  an  institution  which  had  been  coeval  with  the 
ages  and  coextensive  with  the  habitable  globe.  Jerome, 
one  of  the  oracles  of  the  ancient  church,  writing  at  a 
time  when  the  church  was  at  peace  and  there  was  no 
longer  occasion  to  conceal  sentiments,  commenting  on 
1  Cor.  7,  21,  said  :  "  The  condition  of  a  slave  cannot 
"  be  opposed  to  the  Christian  religion."  Augustine, 
Bishop  of  Hippo,  said  that  slavery  could  result  from 
iniquity,  as  in  the  case  when  God  cursed  Canaan,  and 
from  purchase,  as  in  the  case  of  the  sale  of  Joseph,  and 
also  from  capture  in  war,  and  that  Christ  '*  does  not 
"make  free  men  of  servants,  but  He  makes  good 
"  servants  of  bad  servants."  "  How  much,"  adds  St. 
Augustine,  "  do  the  wealthy  owe  to  Christ  who  regu- 
"  lates  their  home."  The  great  Chrisostom,  Bishop  of 
Constantinople,  the  orator  of  the  "  Golden  Mouth," 
writes:  "For  even  as  circumcision  profiteth  nothing, 
"and  uncircumcision  hurteth  nothing,  so  even  does 
"  slavery  or  liberty,  and  in  order  that  he  [the  Apostle 
"  Paul]  might  teach  this  yet  more  plainly,  he  saith — 
"  ^  but  if  thou  may  est  be  made  fi'ee,  use  it  rather.' 
"That  is  serve  rather.  But  why  does  he  command 
"  him  that  might  be  free,  to  remain  a  slave  ?  Because 
"  he  desired  to  show  that  slavery  does  not  hurt,  but 
"  even  profits.  We  are  not  ignorant,  indeed,  that  some 
"  interpret  the  words,  '  use  it  rather,'  as  referring  to 
"  liberty,  saying,  '  if  thou  mayest  be  freed,  be  free.' 
"  But  this  is  very  contrary  to  the  meaning  of  Paul,  for 
"  his  design  being  to  console  the  slave  by  showing  that 
"his  condition  was  no  injury,  he  would  not  have 
"  ordered  him  to  become  fr'ee." 

Gregory  the  Great,  Bishop  of  Rome,  in  his  book 
concerning  the  "  pastoral  care,"  lays  down  this  rule  to 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDEEAOY.      209 

the  clergy  :  "  Slaves  should  he  admonished  in  one  way 
"  and  the  masters  in  another.  The  slaves,  to-wit :  that 
"  they  should  always  in  themselves  regard  the  humility 
"  of  their  condition :  but  the  masters,  that  the  memory 
"  of  their  nature,  in  which  they  are  created  equally 
"  with  their  slaves,  must  not  be  forgotten."  There  is 
extant  a  deed  of  gift  by  Gregory,  conveying  one  of 
his  slaves  to  the  bishop  of  Porto,  who  had  charge  of  a 
suburban  diocese  near  Rome.  The  bill  of  sale  recites : 
"  so  that  you  may  have  and  hold  him,  and  preserve 
"  and  maintain  your  right  to  him,  and  defend  him  as 
"  your  property,  and  do,  by  the  free  right  of  this  dona- 
"  tion,  as  his  master,  whatsoever  you  will  concerning 
"  him.  Against  which  charter  of  our  munificence,  you 
"  may  know  that  neither  we  nor  our  successors  are  ever 
"  to  come." 

The  Apostolic  canons  ;  the  Clementine  constitutions; 
the  Council  of  Gangra  in  Asia  Minor ;  the  Councils  of 
Agde,  Narbonne  and  Orleans,  in  France ;  the  Councils 
of  Epone  and  Macon,  in  Burgundy ;  the  Council  of 
Toledo,  in  Spain ;  the  Council  of  Berghamstead,  near 
Canterbury,  in  England ;  the  Councils  of  Aix-le-Cha- 
pelle  and  Worms,  in  Germany — all  recognized  slavery, 
taught  obedience  to  the  rfiaster,  ordered  the  rendition 
of  fugitive  slaves  to  their  owners,  and  in  no  instance 
denied  the.  rightfulness  of  the  institution.  Slaves  were 
owned  not  only  by  kings,  princes  and  nobles,  but  by 
citizens  of  every  class  and  condition,  by  churches, 
monasteries,  bishops  and  the  clergy. 

Melancthon,  Calvin,  Luther ;  and  the  commentators, 
Patrick,  Lowth,  Whitby,  Henry,  Scott,  Clarke  and 
Doddridge ;  all,  construe  the  language  of  St.  Paul  pre- 


210      THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

cisely  as  the  Christian  church  had  construed  it  from  the 
beginning  down  to  the  reformation. 

The  change  from  a  labor  system  of  slavery  to  one  of 
freedom  was  gradually  brought  about  in  Europe,  but 
very  slowly  and  without  appeals  to  moral  or  religious 
sentiments.  As  late  as  A.  D.  1545,  the  Turks,  taken 
prisoners  at  Lepanto,  were  made  slaves  to  the  victorious 
Spaniards.  They  were  divided  among  the  victors  in 
the  proportion  of  one-half  to  Philip,  and  one-half  to 
the  Pope  and  Venice.  Don  John  received  as  a  present 
one  hundred  and  seventy-four  slaves.  The  number  of 
slaves  allotted  to  Philip,  in  chains,  was  three  thousand 
six  hundred.  At  least  seven  thousand  two  hundred 
slaves  were  divided  out  among  Christians.  At  that 
day  the  universal  judgment  of  Christendom  was  that 
there  was  no  sin  in  holding  slaves. 

It  was  as  late  as  1772,  that  England  took  the  first 
step  towards  declaring  against  slavery  in  her  courts  of 
law.  In  the  celebrated  case  of  the  negro  Somerset 
who  sued  for  his  freedom,  having  been  brought  to 
London  from  the  West  Indies,  that  distinguished  law- 
yer, Hargrave,  declared  in  his  brief  that  however 
reasonable  it  may  be  to  doubt  the  justice  of  domestic 
slavery,  however  convinced  we  may  be  of  its  evil  effects, 
it  must  be  confessed  that  the  practice  is  ancient  and 
has  been  almost  universal.  The  negro,  Somerset,  was 
declared  free  on  the  ground  that  no  slavery  but  that  of 
villeinage  had  ever  existed  in  England  by  common  or 
statute  law,  and  that  the  last  villein  had' either  died  or 
been  manumitted  a  century  and  a  half  previous.  Not 
a  word  was  said  about  slavery  being  against  moral  or 
natural  law.  Disuse,  in  the  case  of  villeinage,  had 
destroyed  it  as  a  fiict. 


THE  CEADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDEKACY.      211 

The  first  article  of  the  treaty  of  Utrecht,  A.  D.  1713, 
stipulated  that  the  English-African  company  should 
bring  into  the  West  Indies  one  hundred  and  forty 
thousand  negroes  within  a  period  of  thirty  years,  one- 
fourth  part  of  the  profits  of  the  traffic  to  go  to  the 
King  of  Spain,  and  one-fourth  to  the  Queen  of  Eng- 
land. If  it  was  true,  according  to  Lord  Mansfield's 
decision  in  the  celebrated  Somerset  case,  that  the  soil  of 
England  could  not  tolerate  a  slave,  it  is  singular  that 
Queen  Anne  and  a  British  company,  chartered  under 
English  laws,  could  legally  engage  in  the  African  slave 
trade  and  stock  the  colonies  with  slaves.  Let  it  be  ob- 
served that  the  period  at  which  this  stipulation  was  to 
terminate  was  the  year  1749,  less  than  twenty-two 
years  before  the  decision  of  Lord  Mansfield,  and  before 
the  period  at  which  the  American  colonies  entered 
upon  the  Hevolution  !  The  stipulation  was  studiously 
observed  by  George  I  and  George  II ;  and  when  it  ex- 
pired, in  1749,  the  slave  trade  was  thrown  open  by 
statute  to  all  British  subjects.  So  great  was  the  influx 
of  negroes  into  the  colonies,  under  this  statute  of 
George  II,  that  South  Carolina  and  Georgia  passed 
laws  forbidding  the  importation ;  but  the  British  Gov- 
ernment abrogated  the  colonial  acts,  and  reprimanded 
the  Governor  of  South  Carolina  for  having  given 
assent  to  them. 

In  view  of  Lord  Mansfield's  decision,  it  is  still  more 
singular  to  find  the  British  Parliament  after  the  Amer- 
ican war,  in  1787,  authorizing  the  exportation  of  cer- 
tain merchandise  from  the  English  islands  to  any  foreign 
colony,  and  that  in  the  list  of  merchandise  is  included 
rum  and  negroes.  When  the  Somerset  case  was  decided, 
there  is  said  to  have  been,  in  London  alone,  fourteen 


212      THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

thousand  negro  slaves.  The  decision  of  Lord  Mans- 
field was  held  not  to  be  law  by  such  distinguished 
jurists  as  Lord  Hardwicke  and  Lord  Stowell.  Wilber- 
FORCE  declared  that  all  the  British  bar  was  against  his 
efforts  at  emancipation.  It  was  not  until  1833,  the 
period  at  which  we  have  just  arrived  in  our  sketch  of  the 
States-Rights  agitation  in  Alabama,  Georgia  and  South 
Carolina,  that  Great  Britain  emancipated  her  slaves  in 
the  West  Indies. 

The  American  colonies  having  slavery  fastened  upon 
them  by  the  treaty  of  Utrecht,  and  for  the  benefit  of 
the  purse  of  the  Christian  Queen  Anne,  grew  up  to 
believe  in  its  rightfulness,  and  down  to  the  American 
Revolution  not  a  doubt  as  to  its  propriety,  except  here 
and  there,  was  expressed.     Lord  Dartmouth,  in  1774, 
immediately  after  the   decision  in  the  Somerset  case, 
declared :  "  We  cannot  allow  the  colonies  to  check  or 
"  discourage  in  any  degree,  a  traffic  so  beneficial  to  the 
"  nation."     A  few  enlightened  and  benevolent  minds 
lamented  such  a  state  of  affairs,  but  their  regrets  were 
lost  in  the   universal   desire   for  gain.     Laurens,  of 
South  Carofina,  said :  "  I  am  devising  means  for  manu- 
"  mitting  my  slaves.     *     *      *     Great  powers  oppose 
"  me — the  laws  and  customs  of  my  country,  my  own, 
"  and  the  avarice  of  my  contrymen."      In  the  draft  of 
the   Declaration   of  Independence,   Jefferson  bitterly 
complained  that  the  King  of  Great  Britain  had  forbid- 
den attempts  "to  prohibit  or  restrain  this  execrable 
"  commerce."     Patrick  Henry,  writing  to  a  Quaker, 
said  :  "  Would  any  one  believe  that  I  am  master  of 
"  slaves  of  my  own  purchase  ?     I  am  drawn  along  by 
"  the  great  inconvenience  of  living  without  them.     I 
"  will  not,  I  cannot  justify  it." 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.      213 

According  to  the  census  of  1790,  there  were  slaves 
in  all  the  States  of  the  Union.  Only  six  were  reported 
in  Massachusetts.  There  were  two  thousand  seven 
hundred  and  fifty-nine  in  Connecticut ;  three  thousand 
seven  hundred  and  thirty-seven  in  Pennsylvania;  twenty- 
one  thousand  three  hundred  and  twenty-four  in  New 
York ;  eleven  thousand  four  hundred  and  twenty-three 
in  New  Jersey ;  nine  hundred  and  fifty-two  in  Rhode 
Island.  At  that  day  there  were  more  slaves  in  Pennsyl- 
vania than  in  Tennessee,  and  as  many  in  New  Jersey 
as  in  Kentucky.  After  the  slave  trade  had  ceased, 
slavery  became  unprofitable  to  the  Northern  States,  and 
the  greater  value  of  the  cotton  fields,  from  the  invention 
of  the  gin,  drew  southward  the  remaining  slaves  of  the 
Northern  States.  Yet  the  complete  abolition  of  slavery 
at  the  North  was  very  slow.  As  late  as  1840,  Massa- 
chusetts, Maine,  Vermont  and  Michigan  were  the  only 
States  which  contained  no  slaves  at  all.  In  that  year 
the  number  of  slaves  in  the  so-called  free  States 
amounted  to  one  thousand  one  hundred  and  twenty- 
nine. 

When  Virginia,  in  1784,  ceded  to  the  United  States 
her  great  Northwestern  territory,  Jefferson  moved  a 
plan  for  its  goyernment.  The  plan  declared  that  after 
the  year  1800,  '^neither  slavery  nor  involuntary  servi- 
"  tude "  should  exist  .there.  This  plan  was  not 
adopted;  but  in  1787  an  ordinance  was  passed  by 
Congress  forbidding  slavery  in  all  that  territory  and 
providing  for  the  rendition  of  fugitive  slaves.  Not- 
withstanding these  advances  made  towards  emancipa- 
pation,  we  find  that  in  1785,  Hopkins  complained  that 
"  some  New  England  States  and  other  States "  had 
again  begun  to  import  slaves  from  Africa.     In  1800, 


214  THE  T5RADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

Wain  of  Pennsylvania  admitted  in  Congress  that  the 
slave  trade  was  carried  on  in  great  part  by  Rhode 
Island,  Boston  and  Pennsylvania ;  and  Broun,  of  Rhode 
Island,  said  the  encouragement  of  the  trade  "  ought  to 
"  be  a  matter  of  national  policy  since  it  would  bring  in 
"  a  good  revenue  to  our  treasury." 

Very  soon  the  West  began  wishing  for  slaves  to  till 
the  fertile  lands  north  of  the  Ohio.  The  territory  of 
Indiana  labored,  from  the  year  1802,  to  induce  Con- 
gress to  suspend  for  a  term  of  years  the  prohibition 
imposed  by  the  ordinance  of  1787.  The  request  was 
rejected ;  but  subsequently  it  was  reported  upon 
favorably  by  the  committees  of  both  Houses,  although 
it  failed  to  meet  the  approval  of  Congress.  There 
were  later  attempts  also  to  introduce  slavery  into 
Illinois. 

The  breeze  of  war  around  the  harbor  of  Charleston 
had  just  blown  safely  past,  when  the  people  of  the  South 
were  destined  once  more  to  have  their  constitutional 
rights  assailed,  and  now  at  a  more  vulnerable  point.  By 
the  Missouri  Compromise,  an  attempt  had  been  made  to 
exclude  the  people  of  the  South  from  removing  with 
their  slave  property  to  the  territory  North  of  thirty- 
six  degrees,  thirty  minutes,  north  latitude.  All  the 
States  north  of  that  line  must  be  non-slaveholding ;  all 
south  of  that  Hne  might  be  such,  or  not,  as  the  people 
establishing  the  territory  into  a  State  should  determine. 
It  was  not  probable,  nay,  even  possible,  that  the  people 
of  the  South  would  desire  or  attempt  to  transport  their 
slaves  from  the  mild  and  rich  lands  of  the  Gulf  to  the 
bleak  prairies  of  the  Northwest.  Yet  the  application 
of  the  settlers  of  Missouri  for  admission  into  the 
Union,  with   a   constitution   recognizing   slavery,  was 


THE  X3RADLE  OF  THE  tJONFEDERACY.  215 

made  a  pretext  for  assaulting  the  whole  people  of  the 
South  as  slave  propagandists,  and  of  establishing  the 
precedent  that  Congress  has  power  to  prohibit  slavery 
in  the  common  territory.  The  Constitution  of  Mis- 
souri happened  to  be  framed  by  her  first  settlers,  who 
had  emigrated  from  Kentucky  and  Virginia,  as  growers 
of  tobacco  and  hemp.  So  far  as  she  was  concerned, 
had  the  quovstion  been  left  alone,  it  was  not  probable 
that  she  would  have  remained  a  slave  State  beyond 
one  generation.  The  Free-Soilers,  not  satisfied  with 
their  victory  in  excluding  the  property  of  the  South 
from  all  the  northern  territories,  now  proceeded,  insid- 
iously and  systematically,  to  agitate,  not  so  much  for 
the  abolition  of  slavery,  as  for  a  dissolution  of  the 
Union. 

Down  to  this  day  the  people  of  the  South  were  not 
banded  together  in  support  of  slavery.  They  differed 
among  themselves  as  widely  upon  that  subject  as  they 
did  upon  other  political  questions.  It  was  not  the 
South  who  sprung  the  Missouri  question.  The  settlers 
of  Missouri,  like  those  of  Louisiana,  Mississippi,  Ten- 
nessee and  Kentucky,  had  framed  her  constitution,  and 
they  alone  were  responsible  for  its  features;  just  as 
the  settlers  of  Indiana  a  few  years  previous,  and  not 
the  people  of  the  North,  generally,  were  responsible  for 
her  application  to  Congress  to  do  away  with  the  feature 
of  the  ordinance  for  the  government  of  the  Northwest 
territory  proscribing  slavery.  Down  to  the  period  of 
the  unhappy  nullification  ordinance  of  South  Carolina, 
and  even  a  few  years  later,  Virginia,  Kentucky  and 
Tennessee  were  earnestly  engaged*  in  practical  move- 
ments for  the  gradual  emancipation  of  the  slaves.  In 
1832,  Virginia   was   on   the   verge  of  emancipation. 


216  THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERAtIt* . 

Both  of  the  leading  Richmond  newspapers  ;  all  of  the 
most  prominent  statesmen,  and  perhaps  a  majority  of 
the  people  favored  the  policy  and  the  justice  of  the 
measure.  Thomas  Jefferson  Randolph,  grand  son  of 
Thomas  Jefferson,  a  delegate  from  Albemarle,  one  of 
the  wealthiest  and  largest  of  the  slave-holding  counties, 
brought  forward  a  bill  in  the  House  of  Delegates  to 
accomplish  this  object.  The  bill  was  freely  and  folly 
discussed,  and  advocated  by  many  leading  members. 
Not  a  voice  was  raised  in  defense  of  slavery.  Mr- 
Randolph  did  not  press  his  measure  to  a  vote,  but  the 
House  resolved  by  a  vote  of  sixty-five  to  fifty-eight 
that  they  were  sensible  of  the  evils  arising  from  the 
condition  of  the  colored  population  of  the  common- 
wealth, but  that  further  action  for  a  removal  of  the 
slaves  should  await  a  more  definite  development  of 
public  opinion.  Mr.  Randolph's  course  was  approved 
by  his  constituents,  and  at  the  next  election  he  was 
returned  to  the  Legislature  as  an  advocate  of  this  very 
measure. 

Unfortunately,  at  this  moment,  when  emancipation 
hung  quivering  in  the  balance,  as  though  to  prevent 
what  was  in  process  of  accomplishment  through  peace- 
ful and  constitutional  means,  the  anti-slavery  agitation 
was  set  on  foot  by  English  and  New  English  agents. 
It  assumed  such  an  alarming  aspect  for  the  peace  and 
security  of  the  Southern  people,  that  an  immediate 
reaction  against  emancipation  was  the  result.  Mr. 
Randolph,  a  short  time  thereafter,  expressed  a  confi- 
dent belief  to  James  Buchanan,  that  but  for  this  inter- 
ference, the  General  Assembly  of  Virginia,  at  no  dis- 
tant day,  would  have  passed  a  law  for  gradual  emanci- 
pation. 


t!he  cradle  of  the  confederacy.    217 

The  moderate  tone  of  Southern  sentiment,  at  that 
period,  is  further  evidenced  by  the  fact  that  the  Consti- 
tution of  Mississippi  was  amended  by  a  clause  prohib- 
iting the  introduction  of  slaves  into  her  territory.  The 
General  Assembly  of  Alabama  had  also  forbidden  the 
introduction  and  sale  of  slaves  from  other  States.  At 
several  sessions  of  the  Legislature  of  the  latter  State, 
there  was  an  open  advocacy  by  the  "  lobby  "  of  grad- 
ual emancipation — a  proposition  seriously  entertained 
by  the  more  intelligent  and  independent  members.  It 
was  a  notable  fact  that  the  agents  of  certain  cotton 
factories,  owned  by  Quakers,  travelled  through  the 
State,  seeking  and  purchasing  only  such  cotton  as  was 
produced  by  free  labor,  their  religious  and  moral  scru- 
ples forbidding  them  to  encourage  slavery  by  investing 
in  its  products.  This  practice  was  tolerated,  barely 
drawing  forth  an  adverse  criticism  fromf  those  who 
.were  thus  passed  by  as  men  violating  the  moral  law- 

As  early  as  1825,  Governor  Israel  Pickens,  of  Ala- 
bama, in  his  message  to  the  General  Assembly,  calling 
attention  to  resolutions  transmitted  to  him  by  the 
State  of  Ohio,  recommending  a  plan  for  emancipa- 
tion and  colonization,  criticised  the  proposition  in  fair 
and  temperate  language,  exhibiting  an  appreciation  of 
the  evils  of  slavery,  and  a  desire  for  its  removal,  when- 
ever a  practical  plan  might  be  suggested.     He  said  : 

."  Should  the  national  government,  at  any  future  pro- 
^ "  pitious  moment  see  proper  to  offer  a  plan,  it  is  to  be 
"  hoped  that  while  it  is  characterized  by  justice  to  our 
"  citizens,  it  will  be  worthy  of  national  philanthropy ; 
"  that  preparatory  to  the  free  condition,  proper  nurser- 
"  ies  shall  be  provided  for  instruction  in  the  necessary 
"  branches  of  industry,  in  the  arts  and  in.  literature, 


218      THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

"  as  far  as  may  be  requisite  to  form  useful  members  of 
"  society  and  government." 

A  still  stronger  evidence  that  the  South  not  only 
tolerated,  but  actually  participated  to  a  wide  extent  in 
the  anti-slavery  sentiment;,  at  that  time  and  for  many 
years  after,  is  the  support  given  Henry  Clay,  who,  in 
his  Lexington  speech  of  September,  1836,  denounced 
slavery  as  a  curse  to  master  and  man ;  as  altogether 
wrong  and  a  thing  which  no  possible  contingency  could 
make  right.  The  statesman  who  announced  this  senti- 
ment, received  in  the  slave  States  three  hundred  and 
eighty-one  thousand  four  hundred  and  six  votes,  as 
against  four  hundred  and  five  thousand  one  hundred 
and  seventy-eight  cast  for  Mr.  Polk,  In  Alabama, 
Mr.  Clay'  received  his  strongest  support  in  the  slave- 
holding  counties. 

The  leaders  of  the  slavery  agitation,  in  New  Eng- 
land and  in  old  England,  knew  that  there  could  be  no. 
dissolution  of  the  Union  so  long  as  the  Southern  people 
were  divided  among  themselves.  A  large  section  of 
the  country  must  stand  united  in  sentiment,  and  with 
contiguous  territory,  before  secession  could  be  practi- 
cally accomplished.  It  has  been  the  habit  of  Northern 
politicians  to  say  that  Calhoun  and  other  leading  spirits 
of  the  South  schemed  to  unite  that  section  upon  the 
slavery  question  when  it  was  found  not  to  be  a  unit 
upon  the  tariff  and  nulUfication  questions.  History 
docs  not  substantiate  this  charge.  There  was  no  wide-t 
spread  slavery  excitement  until  the  British  agents  of 
Exeter  Hall  established  a  newspaper  in  Boston,  and 
flooded  the  South  with  incendiary  documents.  The 
motive  of  Great  Britain  in  beginning  this  crusade  was 
the  same  which  was  afterwards  admitted,  under  other 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.      219 

circumstances,  by  a  distinguished  English  statesman. 
"My  reason,"  said  Mr.  Roebuck,  ^^for  desiring  the 
"acknowledgment  of  the  South,  was  this:  I  wanted 
"  the  great  Republic  of  America  split  into  two.  I . 
"  honestly  and  openly  confess  it,  and  if  it  had  been  so 
"  it  would  have  been  better  for  us." 

The  controlling  motive  of  New  England  was  to  be 
found  in  the  fact  that  by  Clay's  compromise  measure, 
the  protective  tariff  had  a  certain  existence  of  only 
nine  years ;  that  after  that  period,  a  union  of  the  votes 
of  the  South  with  those  of  the  West  and  North,  who 
opposed  protection,  would,  in  their  opinion,  inevitably 
reduce  the  duties  to  a  revenue  standard,  and  place  the 
factories  of  America  in  competition  with  all  the  world ; 
and  that  a  separation  of  the  slave  States  from  the 
Union  would  be  the  salvation  of  that  protective  system, 
which  Clay  and  Clayton  had  declared  to  be  dearer  to 
the  manufacturing  regions  than  the  Union  itself 

That  this  agitation  owed  its  origin  to  others,  and  not 
to  the  Southern  people,  and  that  it  was  not  confined  to 
an  insignificant  class  of  the  American  people,  is  evident 
from  the  official  messages  of  Presidents  and  Governors. 
President  Jackson  saw  proper  to  call  the  attention  of 
Congress  to  the  painful  excitements  in  the  South  by 
attempts  to  circulate,  through  the  mails,  inflammatory 
appeals  addressed  to  the  passions  of  the  slaves,  in  prints 
and  various  sorts  of  publications,  "  calculated  to  stimu- 
"  late  them  to  insurrection,  and  to  produce  all  the 
"  horrors  of  civil  war."  Governor  Marcy,  of  New 
York,  in  his  official  message,  said  that  he  could  see  no 
object  which  the  Abolitionists  could  have  in  view  so  far 
as  they  propose  to  operate  by  disseminating  incendiary 
appeals,  but  to  embark  the  people  of  New  York,  under 


220      THE  CRADLE  OlF'  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

the  sanction  of  the  civil  authority  or  with  its  con- 
nivance, "  in  a  crusade  against  the  slave-holding  States 
"for  the  purpose  of  forcing  abolition  upon  them  by 
.  "  violence  and  bloodshed."     "  If  such  a  mad  project," 
said  Governor  Marcy,  "  as  this  could  be  contemplated 
"  for  a  single  moment  as  a  possible  thing,  everyone 
"  must  see  that  the  first  step  towards  its  accomplish- 
"  ment  would  be  the  end  of  our  confederacy  and  the 
"beginning   of   civil   war."      Governor    Everett,   of 
Massachusetts,  in  his  message,  said  that  the  country 
has  been  greatly  agitated  during  the  past  year  in  rela- 
tion to  slavery,  and  that  the  patriotism  of  all  classes  of 
citizens  must  be  invoked  to  abstain  from  a  discussion 
which  exasperated  the  master,  rendered  the  condition 
of  the  slave  more   oppressive,  and  tied  the  hands  of 
those  at  the  South  who  favored  emancipation.     Such 
agitation,  he  feared,  would  "  prove  the  rock  on  which 
"  the  Union  will  split."     Clay,  who  was  by  no  means 
an  alarmist,  or  disposed  to  do  injustice  to  any  class  of 
Northern  people — remarked  from  his  place  in  the  Senate 
that  "abolition  should  no  longer  be  regarded  as  an 
"  imaginary  danger."      Said  he :    "  The  Abolitionists, 
"  let  me  suppose,  succeed  in  their  present  aim  of  unit- 
'^  ing  the  inhabitants  of  the  free  States,  as  one  man, 
"  against  the  inhabitants  of  the  slave  States,  union  on 
"  the  one  side  will  beget  union  on  the  other.     And 
"  this    process    of    reciprocal    consolidation   will    be 
"  attended  with  all  the  violent  prejudices,  embittered 
'*  passions  and  implacable  animosities  which  ever  de- 
"  grade  and  deform  human  nature.     A  virtual  dissolu- 
"tion  of  the  Union  will  have  taken  place,  while  the 
"  forms  of  its  existence  remain.     The  most  valuable 
"  element  of  union ;  mutual  kindness ;  the  feelings  of 


THE  CEADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.      221 

"  sympathy ;  the  paternal  bonds  which  now  happily 
^'  unite  us,  will  have  been  extinguished  forever.  One 
^'  section  will  stand  in  menacing,  hostile  array  against 
"  another ;  the  collision  of  opinion  will  be  quickly  fol- 
'^  lowed  by  the  clash  of  arms." 

It  was  clear  that  the  purpose  and  tendency  of  this 
agitation  was-  to  array  the  people  of  the  Union  by 
geographical  lines.  Every  intelligent  mind  at  the 
North  saw  and  appreciated  this  fact.  At  first,  the 
great  mass  of  the  people  deplored  and  denounced  it; 
but,  gradually  the  manufacturing  interest  glided  into 
the  movement  on  the  plea  that  the  salvation  of  the 
tariff  depended  on  the  ostracism  of  the  South.  Then, 
here  and  there,  a  few  honest,  but  misguided  humanita- 
rians took  up  the  cry.  Then  the  pulpit  issued,  in  the 
same  direction,  its  hebdomadal  flow  of  irrelevant  phil- 
anthropy. Then  the  young  politicians,  such  as  William 
H.  Seward  has  been  described  to  be  in  the  funeral 
oration  delivered  by  Charles  Francis  Adams,  chiming 
in  with  the  prejudices  of  his  section,  chose  slavery 
agitation  as  the  prolific  means  of  obtaining  local  power 
at  once,  and  national  power  after  the  irrepressible  con- 
flict should  have  been  fairly  inaugurated.  From  a 
small  beginning,  this  agitation  assumed  most  fearful 
proportions.  The  pulpit;  the  press;  State  Legisla- 
tures; State  and  county  conventions;  anti-slavery 
societies ;  and  abolition  lectures,  were  all  brought  into 
requisition  to  drive  in  the  wedge  between  the  sections. 
Abolition  petitions  flowed  into  Congress,  signed  by 
hundreds  of  thousands  of  men,  women  and  children. 
The  people  of  the  South  had  every  epithet  of  contempt, 
hatred  and  indignation  hurled  at  their  heads.  If  they 
took  up  a  Northern  magazine,  their  sentiments  were 


222      THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

shocked  by  the  pages  they  read;  if  they  travelled 
with  a  servant,  they  ran  the  risk  of  being  mobbed. 
They  were  not  to  derive  consolation  from  the  Word  of 
God  unless  they  behoved  it  to  be  an  anti-slavery  Bible ; 
they  were  not  to  commune  as  Christians,  except  in  an 
anti-slavery  church;  and  there  were  grave  doubts 
whether  they  would  be  admitted  into  any  but  an  anti- 
slavery  Heaven.  Ex-President  Jefferson,  who  was  no 
friend  to  slavery,  and  who  would  have  listened  respect- 
fully to  any  plan  by  which  it  might  be  removed  consti- 
tutionally, was  alarmed  from  the  very  outset  of  this 
agitation,  at  the  manner  in  which  it  was  set  on  foot, 
and  the  motives  which  prompted  it.  He  charged  the 
leaders  of  Federalism  with  taking  advantage  of  the 
virtuous  feelings  of  the  people  "  to  effect  a  division  of 
"  parties  by  geographical  lines."  "  They  expect,"  said 
he,  "that  this  will  insure  them  on  local  principles 
the  majority  they  could  never  obtain  on  principles  of 
"  Federahsm."  If  Mr.  Jefferson  had  been  possessed 
of  the  powers  of  prophecy,  he  could  not  have  more 
distinctly  pointed  out  the  methods  by  which  the  patri- 
otic and  vu^tuous  passions  of  the  people  of  the  North 
were  to  be  directed,  whenever  occasion  required, 
through  their  prejudices  against  slavery  and  the  acts  of 
the  slave-holder,  towards  concentration  of  power  in 
the  Federal  Government,  and  towards  the  absolute 
supremacy  of  Congress. 

The  controlling  spirit  of  this  effort  to  array  North 
and  South  on  geographical  lines  was  George  Thompson, 
a  man  of  genius,  who  had  been  sent  from  London 
upon  an  abolition  mission  to  this  country.  He  had 
been  a  member  of  Parliament,  and  was  a  vigorous 
thinker  and  writer.    J.  B.  Morse,  of  telegraph  fiime, 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.      223 

published  about  that  time  a  letter  giving  a  statement 
from  General  Wilson,  a  British  officer  employed  by  his 
government  in  the  arrangement  for  emancipation  in  the 
West  Indies,  to  the  effect  that  Great  Britain  sought  a 
looting  by  this  act  of  emancipation,  from  which  to  pro- 
mote dissensions  between  the  North  and  South  in 
regard  to  slavery,  so  as  by  disunion,  if  possible,  to  ad- 
vance her  manufacturing  interests.  In  furtherance  of 
this  object  we  find  Thompson  coming  to  America  imme- 
diately after  the  West  India  Act,  and  repeating  in  con- 
versations that  "  every  slaveholder  should  have  his 
throat  cut."  Lloyd  Garrison,  another  British  subject, 
became  editor  of  the  "Liberator."  In  the  Massa- 
chusetts House  of  Representatives  he  appeared  before 
a  committee  of  the  General  Assembly,  an  immense 
audience  being  present,  and  said  :  "  I  feel  myself,  Mr. 
"  chairman,  like  Paul  in  the  presence  of  Agrippa. 
"  They  tell  us,  sir,  that  if  we  proceed  in  our  course  we 
"  shall  dissolve  this  Union.  But  what  is  the  Union  to 
''  me  ?  I  am  a  citizen  of  the  world."  The  motto 
which  he  displayed  at  the  head  of  his  paper  was : 
"  The  Constitution — A  Covenant  with  Death,  An 
"  Agreement  with  Hell." 

The  States  of  Virginia,  Georgia,  North  Carolina, 
South  Carolina  and  Alabama,  transmitted  to  all  the 
State  Legislatures  a  series  of  resolutions  asking  that  all 
petitions  for  the  abolition  of  slavery  be  laid  on  the  table 
of  Congress  without  reading  or  printing.  The  twenty- 
fourth  Congress  agreed  to  this  reasonable  request  ;  but 
the  twenty-fifth  Congress  had  barely  convened  when 
the  agitation  was  renewed  from  a  Northern  quarter,  and 
rose  at  once  to  a  pitch  of  unprecedented  fury.  In  de- 
fiance of  the  adjustment  made  by  the  preceding  Con- 


224      THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

gress,  a  member  from  New  England  created  intense  ex- 
citement by  presenting  two  abolition  petitions,  and 
attempting  to  debate  their  merits.  The  ^Southern 
members,  the  next  day,  offered  a  rule  by  which  all  such 
petitions  should  be  laid  on  the  table  without  being  read, 
printed  or  debated,  and  that  no  further  action  be  had 
upon  them.  This  rule  was  adopted  by  a  vote  of  yeas, 
one  hundred  and  twenty-two,  to  nays,  forty.  The  num- 
ber and  character  of  the  petitions  which  came  flooding 
the  tables  of  Congress  were  sufficient  to  create  the 
most  intense  excitement  and  uneasiness  at  the  South. 
Benton  says  that  they  were  signed  by  "  hundreds  of 
"  thousands — many  of  them  women  who  forgot  their 
"  sex  and  their  duties  to  mingle  in  such  inflammatory 
"work;  some  of  them  clergymen  who  forgot  their 
"  mission  of  peace  to  stir  up  strife  among  those  who 
"  should  be  brethren."  Buchanan  says  that  they  were 
directed  not  only  at  slavery  in  the  District  of  Columbia 
and  at  the  forts,  dock  yards,  and  arsenals  of  the 
United  States,  which  might  have  been  a  legitimate  and 
constitutional  object ;  but  also  against  the  introduction 
of  any  more  slave  States ;  and  some  of  them  went  so 
far  as  to  petition  for  a  dissolution  of  the  Union  itself 

Without  provocation,  other  than  the  inheritance  of  a 
species  of  property  transmitted  to  them  by  their 
fathers,  the  people  of  the  South,  without  a  note  of 
warning,  upon  the  heels  of  the  partial  defeat  of  the 
protective  tariff,  and  immediately  after  West  India 
emancipation,  thus  found  themselves  ground  be- 
tween the  upper  and  the  nether  millstone — between 
the  fear  of  New  England  at  the  loss  of  her  manufac- 
tures, and  the  hope  of  Old  England  that  the  dissolution 
of  the  American  Union  would  place  the  South  at  least 


T&E  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.      225 

in  the  condition  of  one  of  her  own  colonies,  a  rich  con- 
sumer of  her  wares.  From  the  Chesapeake  to  the 
Gulf,  a  peaceful,  intelligent,  brave  and  proud  people, 
found  themselves  defamed  in  the  halls  of  Congress, 
rebuked  from  pulpit,  denounced  from  press,  and  threat- 
ened on  all  sides  with  the  knife  and  the  torch.  "  Sir," 
said  Senator  Buchanan,  in  the  midst  of  this  intense 
agitation:  "Touch  this  question  of  slavery  seriously — 
"  let  it  once  be  made  manifest  to  the  people  of  the 
"  South  that  they  cannot  live  with  us,  except  in  a  state 
"  of  continual  apprehension  and  alarm  for  their  wives 
"  and  their  children,  for  all  that  is  near  and  dear  to 
"them  upon  the  earth,  and  the  Union  is  from  that 
"  moment  dissolved.  It  does  not  then  become  a  ques- 
"  tion  of  expediency,  but  of  self-preservation.  It  is  a 
"  question  brought  home  to  the  fireside,  to  the  domestic 
*^  circle  of  every  white  man  in  the  Southern  States." 

Following  close  upon  this  furious  crusade — which 
relaxed  a  Httle  of  its  violence  when  General  Harrison, 
the  hope  of  the  protectionists,  ascended  the  Presiden- 
tial chair,  only  to  be  resumed  when  the  elevation  of 
President  Tyler  dashed  the  cup  from  their  lips — was  a 
decision  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States, 
which  aroused  exultation  on  the  part  of  the  agitators, 
and  corresponding  indignation  on  the  part  of  the  South. 
The  Constitution  had  made  it  mandatory  that  a  fugi- 
tive slave  "  shall  be  delivered  up  "  on  claim  of  the 
master ;  and  according  to  the  doctrine  of  coercion,  as 
held  by  the  Federalists,  it  became  the  duty  of  the 
authorities  of  the  State  to  which  the  slave  had  fled  to 
deliver  him  up.  If  the  State  should  omit  to  enact 
laws,  or  should  obstruct  such  delivery,  it  followed  from 
the  coercion  theory  that  Congress  could  compel  the 


226    The  cradle  op  the  confederacy. 

State  authorities  to  carry  out  the  mandate  of  the  Con- 
stitution. The  Constitution  provides  that  the  States 
shall  elect  members  to  Congress.  Suppose,  said  the 
advocates  of  coercion,  the  State  should  refuse  to  do  so, 
would  not  Congress  have  the  power  to  compel  her  to 
carry  out  a  provision  so  necessary  for  representative 
government  ?  The  class  of  politicians  who  have,  at  a 
recent  day,  decided  this  question  in  the  affirmative,  did 
not  hesitate  to  deny,  in  1843,  the  right  of  Congress 
to  compel  the  State  to  carry  out  the  constitutional 
mandate  respecting  fugitive  slaves.  In  that  year  the 
Supreme  Court  held,  in  the  case  of  "  Prigg  against  the 
"  commonwealth  of  Pennsylvania,"  that  the  State  mag- 
istrates were  not  bound  to  aid  the  master  so  far  as 
to  grant  warrants  of  arrest  upon  application. 

If  the  master  could  have  no  aid  from  the  local 
authorities,  it  was  manifest,  from  the  scarcity  of  Federal 
officers,  that  no  arrests  could  be  made,  and  that  the 
provision  of  the  Constitution  would  be  nuUified.  This 
decision  of  the  Court  was  claimed  by  Judge  Story  as  a 
"  triumph  for  freedom."  He  should  ,  rather  have 
claimed  it  as  a  '^  triumph  for  nullification."  So  soon 
as  the  local  magistrates  were  commanded  to  stand  aside, 
a  new  and  furious  agitation  was  commenced  against  the 
continuation  upon  the  statute  book  of  the  fugitive  slave 
law  of  1793,  which  required  the  Federal  judges  and 
magistrates,  as  well  as  those  of  the  State,  to  carry  its 
provisions  into  effect.  Let  it  be  remembered  that  this 
law  was  enacted  by  those  who  framed  the  Constitution, 
and  during  the  administration  of  Washington.  The 
Legislatures  of  several  States  passed  laws  prohibiting 
their  magistrates  from  assisting  in  its  execution.  The 
use  of  State  jails  was  denied  for  safe-keeping  of  the 


THE  CRAl)LE  O^  THE  CONFEDERACY.  227 

fugitives.  Personal  liberty  laws  were  enacted,  imposing 
insurmountable  obstacles  to  the  recovery  of  slaves. 
Every  means  was  resorted  to  to  nullify  the  constitu- 
tional provision.  The  life  and  liberty  of  the  pursuing 
masters  were  placed  in  jeopardy.  They  were  often 
imp^soned  and  sometimes  murdered. 
/~Thus  the  people  of  the  South,  for  no  fault  of  their 
own,  were  doomed  to  see  their  States  insulted,  their 
property  destroyed,  their  lives  menaced,  the  laws  of  the 
Union  reviled  and  the  Constitution  spurned.  Is  it 
strange  that  this  persecution  produced  its  inevitable 
result  ?  Is  it  strange  that  emancipation  was  no  longer 
mooted,  that  he  who  even  suggested  it  was  suspected 
as  an  enemy,  that  the  stranger  who  wandered  through 
the  land  was  often  treated  with  hasty  indecency,  that 
the  reins  were  tightened  upon  the  poor  and  innocent 
slave,  that  the  geographical  Hne  became  so  distinct  that 
to  all  intents  the  two  peoples  were  separate  nations, 
that  the  value  of  the  Union  became  a  question  of  dis- 
cussion, that  the  wish  for  separation  sought  out  and 
welded  together  arguments  in  support  of  the  right  of 
secession,  and  that  the  Southern  people,  from  looking 
at  slavery  as  a  necessary  evil,  flung  back  into  the  teeth 
of  their  tormentors  that  it  was  a  necessary  good  ?    / 


OHu^PTEK  X. 


Fosition  of  the  South  during  the  Van  Buren  mid  Harrison 
Administration— Relation  and  Tenets  of  Parties  from 
I84O  to  1850— More  Territory  for  the  South— N'ew 
Threats  of  Division  at  the  North — The  Mexican  War 
—  Quitman  and  the  Falmettoes — Offer  of  the  Mexican 
Crown  to  General  Scott — Condition  of  a  Mongrel  Pop- 
ulation^ i&o.,  <&c. 


"  There  is  a  political  force  in  ideas  which  silently  renders  proteata- 
tions,  promises  and  guarantees,  no  matter  in  what  good  faith  they 
may  have  beeii  given,  of  no  avail,  and  which  makes  Constitutions 
obsolete." 

DBAPKB'g  "  ClVIIi  WAK  in  AMKBIOA." 

"  I  have  never  read  reasonings  more  absurd ;  sophistry  more  gross  j 
"  in  proof  of  the  Althanasian  creed  or  tran  substantial  ion,  than  the 
"  subtle  labors  of  Helvetius  and  Rousseau,  to  demonstrate  the  natural 
•  equality  of  mankind.  The  golden  rule,  do  as  you  would  be  done 
"  by,  is  all  the  equality  that  can  be  supported  or  defended  by  reason, 
"  or  reconciled  to  common  sense." 

John  a  daks. 

"  But  nature's  laws  are  stronger  than  bayonets.  She  made  the 
"  Saxon  and  she  made  the  Indian ;  but  no  mixed  race  called  Mexican 
"  will  she  support.  Already  we  are  told  that  the  Indian  blood  pre- 
"  dominates  ;  of  course  it  will ;  but  give  the  so-called  nation  another 
"  century,  and  then  let  us  consider  what  must  happen.  The  Castilian 
"  blood  will  be  all  but  extinct,  the  Indian  predominating;  but  by 
"  that  time  the  Anglo-Saxon,  true  to  his  go-ahead  principle,  seizes 
"  Mexico;  but  no  Saxon  will  mingle  with  dark  blood;  with  him  the 
•*  dark  races  must  be  slaves  or  cease  to  exist." 

Knox's  '•  Racks  ov  Mkn." 


Towards  the  close  of  Van  Buren's  administration, 
political  parties,  which  had  been  in  somewhat  chaotic 
condition  from  the  entrance  of  Alabama  into  the  Union 
in  1819,  now  began  to  assume  definite  shape.  The  fol- 
lowers of  Calhoun,  who,  although  seated  voiceless  i^ 


230      THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

the  chair  of  the  Vice-President,  had  spoken  by  Hayne 
in  his  great  debate  with  Webster,  and  who  had 
himself  subsequently  from  a  seat  in  the  Senate, 
repeated  and  strengthened  the  argument,  had  never 
cordially  affiliated  with  either  the  Clay  Whigs  or  the 
Jackson  Democrats.  They  called  themselves  par  excel- 
lence,  the  "  States-Rights  "  party.  All  the  parties  pro- 
fessed to  be  advocates  of  States-Rights ;  but  this  party, 
alone,  defiantly  and  proudly,  planted  themselves  on  the 
premises  laid  down  by  Hayne,  and  undauntedly  held 
their  faces  to  the  inevitable  conclusion  of  the  argument. 
They  believed  in  the  right  of  both  nullification  and 
secession.  The  State  might  choose  either  mode  of  re- 
dress ;  for  the  resolutions  of  '98  had  distinctly  stated 
that  each  State  had  a  right  to  judge  for  itself  '•'  as  well 
"  of  infi:actions,  as  of  the  mode  and  measure  of  redress." 
General  Jackson  had  mortally  offended  Mr.  Calhoun. 
Whatever  may  be  said  of  the  explanations  made  by 
Blair  and  the  "  Globe,"  it  is  certain  that  the  proclama- 
tion against  South  Carohna  had  stigmatized  secession 
and  nullification  as  treason.  It  declared,  with  respect 
to  nullification,  that  it  would  be  the  abrogation  of  all 
Federal  authority,  and  with  respect  to  nullification  that 
it  would  be  nothing  more  nor  less  than  an  act  of  revo- 
lution. It  said  that  these  doctrines  can  only  be  advo- 
cated through  gross  error,  or  "to  deceive  those  who 
"  would  pause  before  they  made  a  revolution  or  incur 
"  the  penalties  consequent  upon  a  failure." 

In  Calhoun's  opposition  to  General  Jackson's 
administration,  the  States-Rights  party  allied  themselves 
with  that  branch  of  the  old  National  Repubhcan  party, 
who  were  now  being  called  for  the  first  time,  Whigs. 
Calhoun  and  Clay  were  apparently  in  close  alliance, 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.      231 

and  remained  so,  until  the  elevation  of  Van  Buren 
to  the  Presidency.  There  was  no  common  ground 
of  principle  for  this  alliance.  The  opposition  of  Clay 
was  to  all  the  Democratic  measures  of  Jackson,  since 
they  all  ran  counter  to  his  "  American  System ; " 
whereas  the  opposition  of  Calhoun  was  confined  to  the 
questions  growing  out  of  the  alleged  right  of  nuUifica- 
tion.  Upon  questions  of  policy  within  the  Union,  Cal- 
houn was  in  general  accord  with  the  adherents  of 
Jackson.  While  disclaiming  any  connection  with  any 
party,  the  South  Carolinian  had  given  victory  to  Clay 
and  Webster  in  many  hard  fought  battles  against  the 
Jackson  Democrats.  Now  that  his  old  enemy  had 
passed  from  the  chief  magistracy,  Calhoun  advanced  to 
the  side  of  the  Van  Buren  administration,  and  sus- 
tained it  in  those  financial  measures  which  gave  it 
character. 

The  slavery  agitation  having  subsided  for  a  while, 
the  great  question  before  the  country  was,  how  the 
Federal  revenue  should  be  deposited,  and  in  what  kind 
of  money.  The  Whigs  contended  for  a  national  bank- 
ing system  which  should  be  the  depository  of  the 
public  funds,  and  that  taxes  should  be  payable  in  bank 
notes  equally  with  coin.  This  system  they  contended 
would  be  of  great  convenience  to  the  people  in  afford- 
ing them  a  medium  of  exchange  which  would  not 
fluctuate  in  value;  in  doing  away  with  the  ruinous 
discounts  which  prevailed  in  the  exchange  of  the 
money  of  one  State  for  that  of  another ;  and  in  distrib- 
uting throughout  the  States  the  Federal  monies  for 
which  there  was  no  immediate  use  by  the  Government. 
Banks,  based  upon  Federal  deposits,  secured  by  Gov- 
ernment   pledges,  affording    wide-spread    and    equal 


232      THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

accommodation  and  confidence  to  business  men, 
appeared  to  the  Whigs  to  be  not  only  a  convenience, 
but  a  necessary  protection  from  those  pecuniary,  panics 
which  had  so  often  swept  over  the  country  from  the 
insecurity  and  recklessness  of  State  banks.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  Jackson  Democrats,  and  now  the  Cal- 
houn States- Rights  party,  held  that  a  national  bank 
system  tended  to  a  consolidation  of  Federal  power ; 
that  it  gave  undue  weight  and  influence  to  the  Federal 
agents ;  that  it  tended  to  drive  gold  and  silver  from 
circulation ;  and  that  it  placed  all  industrial  interests  at 
the  mercy  of  the  banks,  and  held  the  banks  themselves 
at  the  mercy  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  and  of 
the  President.  In  one  word,  it  would  place  not  only 
the  purse  of  the  Government,  but  the  purse  of  every 
citizen  at  the  mercy  of  the  Executive.  Believing  that 
a  national  bank  system  would  endanger  the  rights  of 
the  States,  the  followers  of  Mr.  Calhoun  sustained 
President  Van  Buren  in  his  recommendation  for  an 
independent  treasury  and  a  hard  money  currency. 

While  these  States-Rights  men,  in  the  several  States 
of  the  South,  denied  the  constitutionality  of  a  national 
bank,  it  is  a  matter  of  history  that  their  great  leader 
was  in  favor  of  a  United  States  bank  in  1816,  and  that 
he  supported  and  mainly  carried  through  the  charter 
under  which  it  was  incorporated  by  Congress ;  aiding 
his  colleague  Lowndes  in  a  speech  of  great  ability.  In 
that  speech  he  admitted  the  constitutionahty  of  such  a 
bank,  although  reserving  an  expression  of  opinion  as 
to  how  far  its  powers  might  constitutionally  extend. 
During  the  twenty  years  of  its  continuance,  he  had 
never  denied  the  power  of  Congress  to  create  it ;  and 
i^  1834,  when  the  charter* was  about  to  expire,  he 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  OONFEDERACY.      233 

advocated  the  renewal  of  its  term  for  twelve  years 
longer. 

The  States-Rights  party,  from  1 832,  had  acted  upon 
the  idea  that  they  held  the  balance  of  power  between 
the  two  national  parties,  and  by  throwing  their  weight 
into  this  or  that  scale,  as  their  interests  were  best  sub- 
served, they  could  modify  the  views  of  both  parties 
and  thus  better  protect  the  people  of  the  South.  Their 
course,  however,  was  marked  by  an  inconsistency 
which  paralyzed  them  as  an  independent  organization. 
As  between  General  Harrison  and  Mr.  Van  Buren,  in 
]  836,  it  would  seem  that  their  animosity  towards  the 
Federalism  of  the  Jackson  Democrats  should  have 
induced  them  to  sustain  General  Harrison,  who  was  a 
strict-construction  Whig.  Not  so,  however ;  they 
threw  their  ballots  for  Judge  Hugh  L.  White,  of  Ten- 
nessee, who  carried  the  electoral  votes  of  Georgia  and 
his  own  State.  Had  the  States-Rights  party  of  Ala- 
bama voted  for  General  Harrison  he  would  have  carried 
that  State.  They  voted  for  Mr.  White,  and  thus  Mr. 
Van  iiuREN  succeeded  in  Alabama  by  a  majority  of  but 
ihree  thousand  four  hundred  in  a  popular  vote  of 
nearly  thirty-five  thousand.  Among  the  revenges  of 
time  it  is  interesting  to  remember  that  the  sage  of 
Kinderhook,  who  was  thus  elevated  to  power,  by  the 
retiring  of  the  States-Rights  party  to  their  tents,  was 
destined  to  consohdate  and  lead  the  Abolition  ranks  ^t 
a  later  day,  and  by  holding  the  balance  of  power  in 
New  York  was  able  to  defeat  the  party  which  had 
honored  him  with  the  highest  office  in  the  land. 

Immediately  upon  the  election  of  Van  Buren,  Con- 
gress was  called  together  in  special  session  to  take  into 
consideration  the  finances  of  the  country,  and   the 


234      THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

Governor  of  Alabama  called  the  General  Assembly 
together  to  co-operate  with  Congress.  Calhoun  having 
allied  himself  with  Van  Buren,  his  followers  immed- 
iately united  their  forces  with  the  Jackson  Democrats, 
throughout  the  South.  In  the  Alabama  General 
Assembly,  the  two  bodies  thus  remained  united  for  ten 
years. 

Analyzing  the  several  pohtical  parties  of  the  South, 
we  find  them  with  distinct  characteristics,  although  the 
hues  of  demarcation  merge  here  and  there  upon  theo- 
retical questions.  The  Whigs  and  the  Democrats  were 
so  equally  balanced  that  in  nearly  all  of  the  Southern 
States  the  few  thousand  independent  States-Rights 
men  were  able  to  turn  the  scale. 

I.  The  Democrats  believed  in  the  least  government 
necessary  for  the  preservation  of  pubUc  peace.  They 
denied  all  incidental  powers  of  Government,  except 
when  such  incidents  were  absolutely  necessary  to  carry 
into  effect  expressed  grants.  They  opposed  a  national 
bank  system,  a  protective  tariff,  and  internal  im- 
provements by  the  General  as'  well  as  by  the  State 
government.  They  likewise  opposed  the  distribution 
of  the  proceeds  of  the  sale  of.  public  lands  among  the 
States,  and  the  assumption  of  the  State  debt  by  the 
Federal  Government.  It  is  difficult  to  say  what 
portion  of  the  party  at  this  time  believed  in  the  right 
of  nullification  and  secession.  The  pohcy  of  the  party 
was  to  express  no  opioion  upon  those  questions,  since 
none  of  the  States  except  South  Carohna  behoved  that 
an  occasion  had  yet  arisen  for  the  exercise  of  that 
reserved  right  even  if  it  existed.  There  was,  however, 
a  large  body  of  the  people  who  stood  by  the  anti-nuUi- 
ficatiou  proclamation  of   General    Jackson.       While 


THE  CEADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.      235 

Georgia  and  South  Carolina  and  even  Tennessee  repu- 
diated the  Unionism  of  Jackson  by  voting  for  Mangum 
and  White,  the  Democrats  of  Alabama  sustained  Van 
BuREN,  who  was  known  to  represent  the  sentiments 
of  his  predecessor.  There  were  large  numbers  of  the 
Democracy  however,  who  while  assenting  to  the  re- 
served right  of  secession  and  recognizing  the  danger 
to  the  South  from  the  incessant  anti-slavery  agitation, 
believed  it  best  to  abide  by  a  national  organization 
until  oppression  was  unendurable.  The  tendency  of 
the  party,  however,  was  to  deny  that  the  right  of  seces- 
sion had  been  reserved  by  the  State  upon  her  acces- 
sion to  the  Union. 

2.  On  the  other  hand,  the  Whigs  gave  a  more  liberal 
construction  to  the  powers  of  the  Federal  Government. 
They  advocated  internal  improvements  by  both  the 
Federal  and  State  Governments,  the  estabhshmeut  of  a 
national  banking  system,  a  protective  tariff,  and  the 
assumption  of  State  debts  by  the  General  Government, 
with  a  distribution  among  the  States  of  the  proceeds  of 
public  lands.  So  far  as  the  question  of  slavery  was 
concerned,  they  were  content  to  abide  by  the  Missouri 
Compromise.  This  compromise  they  considered  an 
equivalent  for  the  settlement  of  a  disturbing  question," 
and  productive  of  no  practical  hardship  to  the  slave 
owners.  Fully  understanding  the  grave  prejudices 
which  existed  against  slavery  in  all  civilized  countries,  • 
and  appreciating  the  fact  that  there  was  no  security  for 
the  property  of  the  South  except  under  the  flag  of  the 
Union,  the  Whigs  never  hesitated  to  accept  a  compro- 
mise upon  questions  relating  to  negro  slavery,  when 
the  South  thereby  suffered  no  material  loss,  and  the 
North  thereby  admitted  that  it  had  no  disposition  nor 


236      THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

power  to  disturb  slavery  where  it  existed  in  the  States. 
The  little  band  of  outright  Abolitionists  in  Congress, 
led  by  John  Q.  Adams,  who  were  intent  on  using  the 
Federal  authority  to  abolish  slavery  even  in  the  States, 
had  no  terrors  for  the  Whigs.  They  held  that  the  pat- 
riotism of  the  whole  people  would  sustain  the  rights  of 
the  SoutTa,  and  that  by  the  use  of  compromises  which 
affected  no  material  interests  of  that  section,  she  could 
be  saved  from  an  agitation  which  imperiled  the  Union. 
There  were  very  many  Whigs  who  believed  in  the 
reserved  right  of  secession,  but  the  great  body  of  the 
party  stood  by  Clay  and  Webstbr  in  repudiating  such 
a  remedy,  for  even  the  grossest  oppression,  as  anything 
more  or  less  than  the  inalienable  right  of  revolution. 
Even  those  who  acknowledged  the  existence  of  the 
right  saw  the  futihty  of  advancing  it  or  of  acting  upon 
it  except  when  prepared  to  enforce  it  by  arms.  To 
them,  such  a  right,  when  denied  by  the  opponent,  could 
amount  to  nothing  but  the  right  of  revolution. 

3.  The  States-Rights  party  were  the  advocates  of 
nullification,  in  1832,  and  the  defenders  of  the  right 
of  peaceable  secession  at  any  time  the  sovereign  State 
might  judge  such  action  to  be  necessary.  If  New 
England  had  beheved  that  the  embargo  and  non-inter- 
course law  justified  it,  she  had  a  perfect  right  to  secede ; 
and  so  had  Pennsylvania  under  the  excise'  law ;  and 
Virginia  under  the  carriage  tax  law;  Georgia  under 
the  abrogation  of  the  Indian  Springs  treaty ;  Alabama 
on  the  non-removal  of  the  Creeks ;  and  South  Carohna 
under  the  tariff  of  1824.  From  setting  up  the  remedy 
in  extreme  cases,  this  party,  grown  familiar  with  the 
argument,  fell  into  the  habit  of  threatening  secession  in 
supposititious  cases.    Beholding  the  gradual  expansion 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.      237 

of  the  Union  and  the  formidable  power  which,  by  num- 
bers and  wealth,  was  being  concentrated  at  Washington, 
the  rapid  development  of  fortune  at  the  North  and  the 
shifting  of  political  power  from  the  ^agricultural  regions 
south  of  the  Potomac  to  the  manufacturing  regions 
north  of  that  river,  the  States-Rights  party  watched  the 
growth  of  the  anti-slavery  idea  with  increasing  jealousy 
and  distrust.  Patriotism  became  tainted  with  doubt, 
and  clouded  with  suspicion.  Doubt  and  suspicion 
frowned  at  conciliation  and  compromise.  With  them 
a  right  was  an  absolute  right,  not  a  thing  to  be  met 
with  conciliation  or  cut,  in  two  by  the  cautious  sword  of 
compromise.  While  they  were  able  to  do  so  with 
dignity  they  would  stand  as  a  separate  political  body 
and  throw  their  influence  in  that  scale  which  inclined 
to  their  favor.  When  they  could  no  longer  assert 
their  rights  within  one  or  the  other  political  organiza- 
tions, they  would  seize  the  first  occasion  to  assert  them  • 
by  separation  from  the  Union.  Being  strictrconstruc- 
tiouists.  of  the  extreme  school,  the  States-Rights  men 
could  not,  except  in  a  few  cases,  act  with  the  Whigs. 
After  1840,  although  now  and  then  carrying  on  a 
guerilla  warfare,  they  were  generally  to  be  found  in  the 
Democratic  ranks.  With  a  single  idea  kept  full  in 
view,  and  with  a  tenacity  which  betokened  courage, 
endurance,  fidelity  and  honesty  of  purpose,  they  finally 
obtained  a  controlling  influence  within  the  ranks  of 
their  allies.  ♦ 

Even  with  the  aid  of  the  States-Rights  men,  the 
Democrats  barely  succeeded  in  endorsing  the  policy  of 
Van  Buren.  At  Tuscaloosa,  then  capital  of  Alabama, 
the  House  of  Representatives  stood  fifty-one  for  pay- 
ment of  Government  dues  in  specie,  and  forty  against  it. 


238      THE  C^lDLE  OF  THE  CONFED^ERACY. 

Having  cemented  an  alliance  upon  the  financial 
questions  of  the  day,  the  Democrats  and  States-Rights 
men  fought  under  one  banner  in  the  autumn  of  1840. 
Van  Buren  was  their  candidate  for  re-election.  The 
manufacturers  of  the  North  had  succeeded  in  thrusting 
Clay  aside  because  of  his  tariff  compromise,  and  had 
compelled  the  Whigs  to  nominate  General  Harrison. 
The  nomination  of  that  veteran  officer  was  received 
with  the  wildest  enthusiasm  among  the  Whigs  all  over 
the  country.  Never  was  there  such  a  series  of  elec- 
tioneering expedients.  The  Van  Buren  men  were 
thrown  upon  the  defensive.  The  financial  disorders, 
which  were  most  severely  felt  in  the  southwestern 
States,  were  all  laid  at  the  door  of  Jackson  and  his 
successor.  The  President  was  charged  with  being  an 
aristocrat.  He  was  said  to  have  purchased  gold  spoons 
for  the  White  House,  with  the  executive  contingent 
fund.  The  chief  magistrate  who  could  use  gold  spoons 
when  the  poor  farmers  were  suffering  from  a  depre- 
ciated, and  oftentimes  worthless  paper  currency,  was  a 
tyrant,  an  aristocrat,  a  nabob  and  a  monster.  General 
Harrison,  on  the  contrary,  was  the  fiiend  of  the  peo- 
ple. He  had  lived  in  a  log  catfin.  He  had  been  a 
frontier-man  and  had  worn  a  hat  made  of  a  raccoon 
skin.  He  was  a  temperate  and  humble  man  who 
drank  nothing  stronger  than  hard  cider,  and  who 
would  scorn  to  take  soup  with  a  gold  spoon.  He  had 
been  a  brave  and  successful  general,  and  had  fought 
the  battle  of  Tippecanoe.  Hard  cider,  raccoon  skins 
and  log  cabins,  became  the  order  of  the  day.  Public 
meetings  were  held  all  over  the  South,  and  party  excite- 
ment ran  to  the  highest  pitch. 

The  fact  that  the  nuUifiers,  as  they  were  called,  were 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.      239 

acting  unitedly  with  the  Democrats,  gave  occasion  to 
the  Whigs  to  claim  for  themselves  the  distinction  of 
being  Unionists.  So  strong  was  the  sentiment  of 
unionism  among  the  Whigs  of  that  day,  that  a  huge 
ball  was  rolled  from  the  Mississippi  river  to  the 
Atlantic,  through  all  the  C'ulf  States,  bearing  among 
its  inscriptions — "  South  Carolina  !  Hemp  for  traitors ! " 
"  Massachusetts,  ever  faithful ! "  This  ball  was  re- 
ceived at  Montgomery  with  a  grand  ovation,  and  was 
conducted  by  one  of  the  leading  Whig  poUticians, 
James  Abercrombie,  one  of  the  foremost  men  of  that 
section. 

The  devotion  to  the  Union  which  marked  the  Ala- 
bama Whigs  of  1840,  even  to  a  denunciation  of  a 
sister  State  of  the  South,  and  an  undeserved  eulogium 
upon  a  sister  State  of  the  North,  became  intensified 
during  the  Presidential  canvass  of  1844.  The  people 
of  Texas,  an  independent  government,  had  applied  for 
admission  into  the  Union.  This  application  was  to 
become  the  prolific  source  of  a  new  agitation  of  the 
slavery  question.  The  friends  of  IMr.  Polk  throughout 
the  South  were  ardent  for  annexation.  Throughout 
the  North,  however,  a  large  part  of  the  Democratic 
party  opposed  annexation,  because  of  the  certainty  that 
Texas  would  enter  the  Union  as  a  slave  State.  Al- 
though the  opposing  Whig  candidate,  Mr.  Clay, 
favored  annexation  with  certain  restrictions,  his 
northern  followers  cherished  the  hope  that  the  restric- 
tions would  be  such  as  to  defeat  the  project.  Their 
position  was  that  annexation  should  not  be  accom- 
plished except  by  negotiation  with  Mexico;  and  as 
Mexico  would  certainly  never  give  her  consent,  they 
could  be  held  as  positive  and  unqualified  opponents  of 


■240  THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDEl^ACY. 

a  measure  which  appealed  most  strongly  to  the  pride 
and  heroism  of  the  country  and  most  directly  to  the 
pecuniary  interests  of  the  people  of  the  South.  The 
wider  the  area  of  the  Southwest,  the  more  surely  would 
slave  property  recede  from  the  Potomac  towards  the 
Gulf,  and  the  wider  would  become  the  belt  of  friendly 
territory  between  the  mass  of  slave  property  and  the 
personal  liberty  laws  of  the  free  States.  The  Whigs 
of  the  South  were  as  earnest  for  annexation  as  were 
the  southern  Democrats.  On  this  question  there  could 
be  no  dispute  between  the  parties  in  Alabama ;  but 
there  was  a  grave  and  fundamental  difference  between 
them  as  to  the  important  question  of  Union  or  disunion, 
which  now  grew  out  of  the  Texas  matter. 

The  Legislature  of  Massachusetts,  in  its  session  of 
1843,  with  a  Democratic  Governor  in  the  chair,  and  a 
majority  of  Democrats  in  both  branches  of  the  As- 
sembly, resolved :  "  that  under  no  circumstances  what- 
"  ever  can  the  people  of  Massachusetts  regard  the  pro- 
"  position  to  admit  Texas  into  the  Union  in  any  other 
"  light  than  as  dangerous  to  its  continuance  in  peace^  in 
"  prosperity,  and  in  the  enjoyment  of  those  blessings 
"which  it  is  the  object  of  a  free  government  to  secure." 

The  danger  to  the  peace  of  the  Union,  contemplated 
by  this  resolution,  could  exist  only  in  the  determina- 
tion of  the  New  England  States  to  forcibly  resist  the 
annexation  of  Texas,,  or  to  secede  from  the  Union  at 
the  happening  of  that  event.  The  resolution  was  for- 
warded to  Congress  and  to  the  several  States.  Natur- 
ally it  called  forth  an  indignant  response  from  the 
South.  It  was  a  menace  on  the  part  of  Massachusetts 
that  no  matter  under  what  circumstances  Texas  might 
be  acquired  by  the  Union,  there  should  be  no  peace 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.      241 

between  the  sections.  The  succeeding  Legislature, 
containing  a  majority  of  Whigs,  left  in  no  doubt  the 
intention  of  their  predecessors.  That  body,  directing 
that  their  proceedings  should  be  sent  to  Congress  and 
to  the  States,  solemnly  resolved  "that  the  project 
"  for  the  annexation  of  Texas,  unless  arrested  on  the 
"  threshold,  may  tend  to  drive  these  States  into  a  disso- 
'Hution  of  the  Union''  Cotemporaneously  with  this 
resolution,  the  inaugural  address  of  the  Governor 
announced  for  the  first  time  in  the  history  of  the 
Union  a  proposition  which  culminated  finally  in  genqral 
abolition  of  slavery.     He  said  : 

"  Indeed,  there  is  reason  to  believe  that  before  the 
"  existence  of  our  Constitution,  our  highest  court  held 
"  the  opinion  that  the  Declaration  of  Independence  put 
"  an  end  to  slavery  in  this  State.'^ 

From  this  fact,  he  asked  whether  it  was  unreasonable 
that  they  should  strive  "  to  hasten  the  time  when  every 
"  human  being  in  this  repubhc  shall  enjoy  the  inalien- 
"  able  right  of  life,  liberty  and  the  pursuit  of  happi- 
"  ness."  Here  then  was  a  distinct  proclamation  sent  to 
every  State  in  the  Union,  by  Massachusetts,  as  the 
head  of  the  New  England  States,  that  slavery  in  her 
opinion  was  abolished  by  the  Declaration  of  Indepen- 
dence in  every  State  of  the  Union,  that  it  would  be 
her  duty  to  strive  to  enforce  a  perfect  political  equality 
of  all  the  races,  and  that  the  introduction  of  another 
slave  State  would  endanger  the  peace  of  the  country 
and  drive  the  New  England  States  into  a  dissolution  of 
the  Union.  When  this  resolution  was  presented  to 
Congress,  Senator  King,  from  Alabama,  one  of  the 
most  moderate  and  conservative  Southern  statesmen,  as 
we  have  already  seen,  expressed  his  regret  that  a  propo- 


242      THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

sition  should  thus  come  from  Massachusetts  to  dissolve 
the  Union.  What  was  a  source  of  regret  to  Mr.  King, 
was  a  source  of  indignation  to  the  mass  of  Southern 
people  who  had  been  constantly  denounced  as  dis- 
Unionists  by  those  who  had  goaded  them  almost  to 
desperation,  and  who  were  now  calmly  considering  the 
value  of  the  Union  when  about  to  be  defeated  in  their 
desire  to  obtain,  upon  geographical  lines  and  for  par- 
tisan purposes,  control  of  the  Senate  of  the  United 
States. 

Finally,  Massachusetts  passed  another  series  of  reso- 
lutions, and  transmitted  them  to  Congress  and  to  all  the 
States,  in  which  she  resolved,  that  as,  in  her  opinion, 
Congress  had  no  right,  under  the  Constitution,  to 
admit  Texas  by  legislation  into  the  Union,  "  such  an 
"  act  of  admission  would  have  no  linding  force  whatever 
"  on  the  people  of  Massachusetts'''  Here  was  a  definite 
and  distinct  re-affirmation  of  the  principles  enunciated 
by  the  Hartford  Convention.  Massachusetts  was  to 
judge  for  herself  of  a  violation  of  the  Constitution. 
Any  act  passed  by  Congress  for  the  admission  of 
Texas  was  to  be  treated  as  a  nullity.  The  fact  that 
practically  no  occasion  could  arise  under  which  Massa- 
chusetts could  put  her  nullification  resolutions  into 
operation  could  not  palliate  such  language.  The  wish, 
the  words,  the  intent,  the  principle  of  nullification  were 
all  as  clearly  revealed,  understood  and  adopted,  as 
though  a  regiment  of  militia  stood  drawn  up  at  Boston 
common  to  resist  the  coEection  of  imports  by  the 
officers  of  the  custom  house. 

To  leave  no  doubt  of  the  violent  intentions  of  New 
England,  John  Quincy  Adams,  in  his  address  to  his 
cojistituents,  made  use  of  language  calculated  to  arouse 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.      243 

a  warlike  spirit  in  the  breast  of  his  followers^  and  to 
inflame  still  more  the  spirit  of  the  South.     Said  he : 

"  Texas  and  Slavery  are  interwoven  in  every  banner 
"  floating  to  the  Democratic  breeze.  Freedom  or 
^'  Death  should  be  inscribed  on  ours.  A  war  for 
"  slavery  !  Can  you  enlist  under  such  a  standard  ? 
"  May  the  Ruler  of  the  Universe  preserve  you  from 
"  such  degradation.  '  Freedom,  Peace,  Union,'  be  this 
"  the  watchword  of  your  camp,  and  if  Ate,  hot  from 
"  hell,  will  come  and  cry  '  Havock ' — fight — fight  and 
"  conquer,  under  the  banner  of  universal  fi:eedom !  " 

As  the  Federal  party  of  New  England  sympathized 
with  Great  Britain  in  1812,  so  now  they  so  far  sympa- 
thized with  Mexico,  in  their  desire  to  curb  the  South 
and  restrict  its  fi-ee-trade  power,  that  through  the  voice 
of  one  of  their  leaders  they  expressed  the  hope  that  a 
foreign  government  would  welcome  our  patriotic  troops 
"  with  bloody  hands  to  hospitable  graves." 

While  Massachusetts  was  thus  heading  the  Abolition 
disunion  movement,  flooding  Congress  and  the  States 
with  menacing  resolutions,  sending  agents  to  the 
southern  ports  under  the  pretense  of  looking  after  the 
interests  of  negro  sailors,  denouncing  the  spirit  of  com- 
promise, advocating  equal  political  rights  for  all  men 
under  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  destroying 
peace  between  the  sections,  and  nullifying  an  act  of 
Congress,  the  State  of  South  Carolina  was  not  slow  to 
meet  her  half  way.  At  the  head  of  the  States-Rights 
party  she  repHed,  to  all  menaces,  that  Texas  had  as 
much  right  to  join  the  Union  as  though  she  had  been 
a  part  of  our  territory;  that  her  annexation  was  material 
to  the  commercial  prosperity  of  the  whole  Union,  and 
especially  of  the  Gulf  States ;  that  it  was  not  certain 


244      THE  CEADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

that  her  admission  would  accrue  to  the  power  of  the 
slave  States,  in  as  much  as  her  territory  was  so  great 
and  so  sparsely  settled  that  two  or  three  free  States 
might  yet  be  carved  from  her,  and  that  whether  she 
applied  for  admission  with  slavery  or  without,  was  a 
matter  entirely  with  herself,  and  in  no  event  could  be 
a  violation  of  the  Constitution.  Finally,  wrought  up  to 
the  highest  pitch  of  indignation.  South  Carolina  and 
the  States-Rigtits  party  declared  that  a  refusal  to  admit 
Texas  upon  the  grounds  stated  in  the  Massachusetts 
resolutions  would  be  good  cause  for  a  dissolution  of  the 
Union. 

Those  who  in  their  public  writings  have  placed  the 
origin  of  the  spirit  of  disunion  in  the  breast  of  the 
South,  have  not  ceased  to  allege  that  at  that  day  the 
agitation  for  disunion  began  in  South  CaroHna.  Senator 
Benton  in  his  "  Thirty  years'  view,"  says  that  so  soon 
as  Mr.  Polk  was  nominated,  ^'  the  disunion  aspect  man- 
"  ifested  itself  over  many  of  the  Southern  States — 
"  beginning,  of  course,  with  South  Carohna."  This  is 
so  far  from  being  the  truth  that  it  was  as  late  as  May, 
1844,  when  the  first  meeting  was  held  in  South  Car- 
oliija.  It  was  a  meeting  to  retahate  against  Massa- 
chusetts, who  had  passed  her  disunion  resolutions  in 
the  autumn  of  1843.  It  was  held  at  Ashley,  in  the 
Barnwell  district,  and  its  intention  was  to  combine  the 
slave  States  in  a  convention,  to  unite  the  Southern 
States  to  Texas,  if  Texas  should  not  be  received  into 
the  Union,  and  to  invite  the  President  to  convene  Con- 
gress to  arrange  terms  for  a  dissolution  of  the  Union. 
Another  large  meeting  was  held  at  Beaufort,  another 
at  Charleston,  and  another  at  the  Williamsburg  district, 
at  which  resolutions  looking  to  the  same  end  were 
adopted. 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.      245 

During  this  controversy  the  State  of  Alabama  was 
ardently  in  favor  of  the  annexation  of  Texas ;  but  it  iS 
certain  that  a  majority  of  her  people  would  not  have 
.fe-vored  disunion  in  the  event  of  a  refusal  of  Congress 
to  admit  that  State.  She  was  emphatic  in  her  reply  to 
the  resolutions  and  conduct  of  Massachusetts.  Her 
General  Assembly  decided  unanimously  that  the  abro- 
gation of  the  twenty-first  rule,  by  which  Congress  had 
refused  to  consider  abolition  petitions,  was  a  hostile  act 
on  the  part  of  the  North,  and  that  South  Carolina  had 
a  right  to  protect  the  peace  and  happiness  of  her  peo- 
ple, by  sending  back  the  agent  of  Massachusetts,  who 
had  been  delegated  as  an  attorney  to  look  after  the 
interest  of  negro  sailors  who  might  be  citizens  of  Mas- 
sachusetts. Still  the  Whig  party  of  Alabama,  and 
very  many  of  the  Democratic  party,  denied  the  right  of 
a  State  to  disunite  itself  from  the  Union  except  in  the 
last  resort,  and  they  believed  that  the  acceptance  or 
rejection  of  Texas  by  Congress  was  not  adequate  cause 
for  secession.  The  Democratic  party,  embracing  the 
States-Rights  party,  and  receiving  a  large  coloring 
of  its  principles  fi:oicr  that  wing  of  its  army,  were 
charged  by  its  opponents  with  being  disunionists. 
The  banner  of  "  Texas  or  Disunion,"  which  was  being 
flaunted  throughout  the  South,  was  almost  invariably 
in  Democratic  hands,  and  hence  the  Whig  party  took 
advantage  of  the  acts  and  words  of  the  States-Rights 
men  to  stamp  the  Democratic  as  the  Disunion  party, 
and  to  claim  for  themselves  the  distinction  of  being  the 
Union  party.  Nor  was  it  possible  for  the  Democrats 
to  retaliate  upon  the  Whigs  by  saying  that  if  the  dis- 
union element  at  the  South  were  the  allies  of  the  former, 
the  disunion  element  at  the  North  were  the  allies  of 


^46  'THE  CRADLE  OF  *HE  CONFEDERlCY. 

the  latter,  since  it  was  a  matter  of  record  that  the  dis- 
'  union  sentiments  of  Massachusetts  were  expressed  by 
both  Whig  and  Democratic  Legislatures,  and  that  the 
Abolition  press  were  intent  upon  breaking  up  the  Whig 
party  at  the  North  as  the  great  barrier  in  their  way  to 
disunion.  If  the  Whig  Governor  of  Massachusetts,  in 
1844,  had  embraced  the  Abolitionists,  he  only  followed 
in  the  footsteps  of  the  Democratic  Governor  of  1843. 
If  the  Northern  Whigs  voted  to  repeal  the  21st  rule, 
so  did  forty-seven  Northern  Democrats.  And  in  the 
Presidential  election  which  followed,  the  Whigs  could 
point  triumphantly  to  the  fact  that  Mr.  Polk  had  been 
elected  President  by  the  Disunion  element  of  the  North. 
The  candidacy  of  Mr.  Birney  by  the  Anti-slavery  party 
drew  away  enough  votes  in  New  York  to  have  elected 
Mr.  Clay,  just  as  the  candidacy  of  Mr.  VanBuren  in 
1848  drew  away  enough  votes  to  have  elected  General 
Cass.  They  could  also  point  to  the  fact  that  Mr.  Bir- 
ney, while  Abolition  candidate  for  the  Presidency,  was 
at  the  same  time  the  regular  Democratic  nominee  for 
the  Michigan  Legislature.  The  truth  is,  the  Abolition 
party  acted  with  either  or  neither  of  the  regular  par- 
ties, as  its  interests  suggested,  struggling  to  consolidate 
the  anti-slavery  sentiments  of  both  Whigs  and  Demo- 
crats into  a  new  geographical  party  which,  while  pre- 
tending the  amehoration  of  the  human  race  upon  high 
humanitarian  principles,  was  actually  intending  tojevert 
the  Government  to  the  views,  hopes  and  wishes  of  Gen- 
eral Hamilton  and  the  Federalists. 

When  at  last  the  Whig  party  of  the  North  passed 
away,  it  is  difficult  to  say  whether  the  major  portion,  or 
what  portion,  of  that  party,  went  to  form  the  new  Re- 
publican party.     If  leading  Whigs  hke  Seward,  Greb-  , 


TfiE  CRA1)LE  O^  THE  CONFEDERACY.  247 

LEY  and  Lincoln  were  to  be  found  within  its  ranks,  so 
also  among  its  leaders  were  to  be  found  Democrats  like 
BiRNEY,  Chase,  Hamlin  and  Cameron.  The  Republi- 
can party  professed  to  be  built  upon  the  ruins  of  hoth 
the  Whig  and  Democratic  parties  of  the  North,  and  it 
would  not  be  far  from  the  mark  to  say  that  as  many 
Whigs  went  into  the  Democratic  ranks  after  the  defeat 
of  General  Scott  as  into  the  Republican  ranks;  and 
that  the  latter  party  drew  its  followers  as  largely  from 
the  one  old  party  as  the  other.  However  this  may  be, 
the  Whigs  of  the  South  were  not  to  be  deterred  from 
their  zealous  advocacy  of  the  Union  by  the  charge,  on 
the  one  hand,  that  their  brother  Whigs  of  the  North 
were  allied  with  the  Abolition  party  5  nor  by  the  charge, 
on  the  other  hand,  that  the  cry  of  '^  Union  "  was  now 
become  synonymous  with  that  of  "  submission." 

The  Whigs  of  Alabama  in  their  protest  against  the 
Gvy  of  "  Texas  or  disunion,',  which  had  thundered 
forth  from  the  States-Rights  men  in  response  to  the 
New  England  threat  of  ^^  rejection  of  Texas  or  dis- 
"  union,"  were  joined  in  sentiment  and  sympathy  by 
hosts  of  Southern  Democrats.  The  movement  in  New 
England  took  no  positive  form  beyond  words.  The 
movement  in  South  Carolina  assumed  an  active  form. 
A  convention  of  the  Southern  States  was  called  for,  to 
meet  at  Nashville,  to  lay  down  the  ultimatum.  The 
resolutions  of  the  South  Carolina  meeting  met  a  response 
in  several  of  the  Southern  States.  A  meeting  held 
in  Alabama  suggested  that  the  convention  meet  at 
Richmond.  In  reply  to  this  suggestion,  Mr.  Ritchie, 
editor  of  the  Enquirer,  said  :  "  There  is  not  a  Dem- 
''  ocrat  in  Virginia  who  will  encourage  any  plot  to  dis- 
*'  solve  the  Union."     The  Richmond  Whig^  on  the  part 


^i8  THE  imADLE  01?  trSE  CONifEBEUiCY. 

of  the  Whigs,  repudiated  the  suggestion  with  indigna- 
tion. Nashville  was  not  behind  Richmond  in  dedining 
the  honor  of  being  the  seat  of  the  disunion  convention. 
A  meeting  of  her  citizens  protested  against  "  the  dese- 
"  cration  of  the  soil  of  Tennessee,  by  having  any  con- 
"  vention  held  there  to  hatch  treason  against  the 
"  Union."  The  resolutions  adopted  by  the  Nashville 
meeting  were  those  which  marked  the  councils  of  the 
Whigs  throughout  the  South.  They  condemned  every 
attempt  to  bring  into  issue  the  preservation  of  the 
Union,  or  to  bring  its  value  into  calculation.  While 
entertaining  for  the  people  of  .South  Carolina  and  for 
the  States-Rights  party  everywhere,  the  most  fraternal 
regard  and  the  highest  respect  for  the  sincerity  of  their 
opinions,  they  lamented  the  exhibition  by  any  portion 
of  them  of  disloyalty  to  the  Union,  or  a  disposition  to 
urge  its  dissolution  with  a  view  to  annexation  with 
Texas,  and  the  construction  of  a  Southwestern  repubHc 
such  as  was  contemplated  by  Aaron  Burr. 

The  proposition  lor  the  Nashville  convention  met 
such  powerful  opposition  that  the  hopes  and  prospects 
of  the  Whigs  brightened  throughout  the  South.  The 
plan  was  discarded ;  Mr.  Polk  was  elected ;  the  tact 
and  promptness  of  President  Tyler  hastened  and 
secured  the  admission  of  Texas,  to  the  confusion  of 
New  England  and  the  satisfaction  of  the  entire  South. 

The  vote  in  the  State  of  Alabama  was  for  Mr.  Polk, 
36,740;  for  Mr.  Clay,  26,084.  The  States-Rights 
party  had  grown  in  strength  since  1840,  and  had 
taken  two  thousand  voters  from  the  Whigs  and  added 
them  to  their  aUies.  Apart  from  this  defection  which 
was  more  than  made  good  at  the  next  Presidential 
election,  the  Whigs  were  as  earnest  and  enthusiastic  for 


THIS  CUABLE  OP  TiBTO  COKPEDERAOY.  249 

Clay  as  they  had  been  for  Harrison.  The  same  old 
leaders  who  guided  the  party  in  1840,  were  at  its  head 
in  1844. 

The  action  of  President  Tyler  in  securing  the  admis- 
sion of  Texas  in  the  last  days  of  his  Presidency,  was 
followed  by  the  war  with  Mexico  and  the  ultimate  cap- 
ture of  the  capital  of  that  nation.  The  first  troops 
within  the  fortifications  of  Mexico  were  a  South  Caro- 
lina regiment,  and  the  first  flag  that  floated*  over  the 
city  was  that  of  "  the  Palmettoes."  General  Quitman, 
the  gallant  son  of  Mississippi,  was  designated  as  the 
officer  to  receive  the  surrender  of  the  city  and  to  hoist 
the  flag  of  the  United  States  over  a  conquered  nation. 

The  war  with  Mexico  exerted  a  great  influence  in 
many  respects  upon  the  mind  of  the  whole  country. 
By  extending  the  southwestern  fi:ontier  it  opened  the 
slavery  agitation  anew,  and  more  painfully  than  ever  at 
the  North ;  and  at  the  South  it  aroused  closer  attention 
from  those  leading  spirits  who  had  participated  in  the 
war,  to  a  more  thorough  consideration  of  what  would  be 
the  condition  of  the  Gulf  States  if  the  Free  Soil  party 
should  succeed  in  accomphshing  emancipation,  and  in 
bringing  about  that  political  equality  which  has  inva- 
riably followed  emancipation. 

Mexico,  in  less  than  a  quarter  of  a  century,  had  fol- 
lowed all  the  routes  that  lead  a  republic  to  anarchy.  Her 
weakness  was  not  in  her  situation,  her  material  resources, 
nor  in  her  climate.  All  of  these  were  admirable.  She 
possessed  as  magnificent  a  land  as  the  God  of  nature 
ever  smiled  upon — a  land  which  claimed  the  flora  of 
both  continents,  and  which  reveled  in  every  plant  that 
could  be  grown  on  the  habitable  globe ;  grand  forests  of 
every  description  of  timber,  numberless  droves  of  wild 


250  THE  CRABLiE  OF  THS  COlSTEDERACt^. 

cattle,  birds  of  the  brightest  plumage  and  most  ravish- 
ing song ;  a  climate  offering  every  degree  of  tempera- 
ture, and  mines  of  precious  metal  which  for  centuries 
had  sustained  the  tottering  thrones  of  Spain.  Possess- 
ing every  natural  advantage  which  a  government  might 
wish,  the  American  army  found  the  Mexican  nation 
rotten  to  the  core.  The  people  were  overshadowed  by 
a  church,  whose  vast  wealth  gave  them  a  temporal 
power  even  greater  than  the  spiritual  power.  The  reli- 
gious corporations  which  controlled  the  monasteries  and 
nunneries,  and  the  secular  corporations  which  controlled 
the  mines,  had  added  riches  to  riches,  while  the  mass  of 
people  grew  poorer  and  poorer. 

The  power  of  the  corporations  gave  preferment  in  the 
army,  and  hence  ambitious  Mexicans,  leaning  to  the 
money  influence  in  order  to  rise  in  office  rapidly  and 
to  reap  an  early  fortune,  regarded  as  little  the  letter  of 
constitutions  as  they  did  the  wants  and  necessities  of 
the  people.  Hence  in  twenty  years  there  *had  been 
forty  revolutions.  The  rise  and  fall  of  parties,  the 
overthrow  and  resurrection  of  Presidents,  Emperors  and 
Dictators  followed  each  other  in  such  rapid  succession 
that  the  events  and  even  the  names  of  leaders  have 
perished  from  memory. 

The  church  and  the  army  combined,  possessing  the 
purse  and  the  sword,  leaned  constantly  towards  central- 
ism. To  preserve  the  independence  of  the  States,  or 
even  the  form  of  a  Federal  Republic,  under  such  cir- 
cumstances, was  an  impossibility.  An  ignorant  country 
people  cared  nothing  for  the  rights  of  the  States  so  long 
as  they  could  get  offices  in  the  army  or  employment  at 
the  mines ;  even  at  the  capital  the  people  saw  their 
city  surrendered  as  the  battle-field  of  all  the  political 
aspirants  who  had  won  reputation  in  the  camp. 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.      2^1 

This  country  of  seven  millions  of  people,  twice  as 
prosperous  as  were  the  colonies  of  Anglo-Saxons  when 
they  threw  off  the  yoke  of  Great  Britain,  was  now  in- 
vaded by  an  army  which  assaulted  their  capital  with- 
less  than  six  thousand  men.  This  handful  of  invaders 
had  landed  under  the  walls  of  a  strong  sea  fortification, 
had  marched  through  almost  impassable  defiles  and  over 
easily  obstructed  mountains,  had  broken  through  a 
triple  line  of  defences  bristling  with  the  most  approved 
artillery  and  defended  by  an  army  of  forty  thousand 
Mexicans,  and  had  finally  fought  its  way  along  narrow 
causeways  into  a  city  so  populous  that  had  the  people 
been  possessed  of  half  the  spirit  of  the  women  of  Sala- 
manca, they  could  have  annihilated  the  enemy  by  hurl- 
ing hand  grenades  from  the  house  tops. 

The  Anglo-Saxon,  when  overthrown  or  conquered, 
never  fawns  at  the  feet  of  the  conqueror.  The  descend- 
ants of  Alfred  and  Harold-  preserved  their  dignity 
and  their  customs  under  the  Norman  invader,  and  the 
Saxons  of  Holstein  and  Schleswig  brooked  the  Dan- 
ish yoke  with  such  impatience  that  they  readily  rallied 
to  the  banner  of  Prussia.  Julius  Cesar,  with  the 
legions  of  imperial  Rome,  could  not  subdue  those  stal- 
wart, blue-eyed,  flaxen-haired  warriors  of  the  wilderness. 
But  the  mongrel  population  of  Mexico  threw  them- 
selves at  the  feet  of  the  conqueror  and  offered  him  a 
crown.  On  taking  possession  of  the  city  of  Mexico, 
such  was  the  order  and  security  for  life  and  property 
established  by  the  American  General  that  at  least  two- 
fifths  of  all  the  branches  of  government,  including  very 
nearly  a  majority  of  the  members  of  Congress  and  the 
Executive,  were  anxious  for  annexation  to  the  United 
States.      Men  in  and  out  of  office,  of  great  influence, 


252      THE  CRADLE  OP  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

approached  General  Scott  privately  and  offered  to  place 
at  his  disposal  one  million  of  dollars  if  he  would  remain 
in  and  govern  Mexico.  They  knew  that  upon  the  rati- 
fication of  the  treaty  of  peace  nineteen  out  of  twenty 
of  the  army  would  be  disbanded  and  would  be  free  to 
enlist  under  any  banner.  It  was  expected  that  a  large 
portion  of  the  troops  would  be  eager  to  serve  as  the 
favored  guards  of  an  American  dynasty.  One-third 
more  was  to  be  added  to  the  pay  of  those  officers  and 
men  who  would  engage  in  the  proposed  movement. 
New  regiments  of  volunteers  were  arriving  daily,  and 
these,  more  readily  than  the  others,  were  expected  to 
be  carried  away  by  the  novel  project.  Ten  thousand 
Americans  were  counted  upon  as  a  nucleus,  and  this 
force  could  be  greatly  increased  by  recruits  from  New 
Orleans  and  Mobile.  A  salary  of  $250,000  per  annum 
was  offered  General  Scott.  All  the  fortresses,  all  the 
armies  of  the  country,  all  the  custom-houses  were  already 
in  his  hands.  A  distribution  of  a  Uttle  money,  or  the 
arrest  of  those  who  were  opposed  to  the  scheme,  would 
easily  secure  a  favorable  vote  of  the  Mexican  Congress ; 
and  then  nothing  was  left  to  obstruct  the  mounting  of 
the  American  General  to  the  Mexican  throne,  with  as 
much  ease  as  Bernadotte  ascended  the  throne  of  Swe- 
den. This  offer,  so  shameful  to  the  Mexicans,  was  re- 
jected for  two  reasons,  as  given  by  General  Scott  him- 
self The  first  reason  was,  that  he  could  not  honorably 
resign  from  under  his  own  flag  except  to  add  to  the 
glory  of  his  country  by  immediate  annexation  of 
Mexico  to  the  United  States.  Such  a  reason,  as  clear 
as  the  sunhght  to  an  Anglo-Saxon,  could  not  be  appre- 
ciated by  the  average  Mexican.  The  second  reason 
was  that,  as  there  were  but  one  miUion  of  pure-blooded 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.      253 

white  men  in  Mexico,  and  six  millions  of  Indians  and 
mixed  Indians,  Negroes  and  Spaniards,  the  American 
General  believed  that  the  annexation  of  such  a  free 
population  to  the  United  States  would  .be  an  injury  to 
his  country. 

The  soldiers  mingled  with  the  people,  and  soon  dis- 
covered the  intrigues  into  which  their  shameless  enemy 
was  entering.  They  repelled  the  proposition  as  earnestly 
as  did  their  commander.  If  General  Scott,  who  was 
no  peculiar  friend  of  the  South,  could  discountenance  a 
brilliant  ofler  of  empire  because  of  the  character  of  the 
population,  the  volunteers  of  the  South  who  composed 
two-thirds  of  the  army,  could  not  for  a  •  moment  con- 
sider a  scheme  by  which  six  millions  of  people  of  de- 
based blood  and  debased  ideas  were  to  be  incorporated 
into  a  Republican  Government  which  owed  all  of  its 
vigor  and  glory  to  the  unsullied  and  untainted  blood  of 
the  Anglo-Saxon. 

Of  the  seven  millions  of  Mexicans  only  one  million 
were  white  men.  Three  millions  were  Indians;  and 
three  millions  were  Mulattoes,  Mestizoes  and  Samboes. 
The  Samboes  were  a  cross  of  the  white  man  and  the 
Negro,  the  white  man  and  the  Indian,  and  the  Negro 
and  the  Indian,  with  all  the  intermediate  shades  and 
degrees  of  debased  blood  resulting  from  a  union  of  the 
Mestizo  with  the  Sambo,  and  the  Mulatto  with  both. 
Many  milHons  of  white  men  had  come  and  gone  in  the 
lapse  of  three  centuries  ;  many  hundreds  of  thousands 
of  Negro  slaves  had  been  imported  and  had  perished ; 
many  millions  of  Indians  had  been  swept  away  by  the 
brutality  of  Cortez  and  his  successors,  and  now  th^ 
Republic  of  Mexico  exhibited  to  the  young  Southerner 
who  stood  guard^before  the  halls  of  the  Montezuma 


254      THE  CRADLE  OP  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

the  singular  spectacle  of  a  nation  composed  mainly  of 
half-breeds,  whose  color  was  gradually  year  by  year 
assuming  a  darker  shade,  until  it  must  eventually  go 
back  to  the  copper  complexion  of  the  aborigines. 
This  Republic  of  half-breeds,  although  generaled  in  the 
Senate,  in  the  army,  and  in  the  church,  by  pure-blooded 
white  men,  was  the  miserable  thing  which  taught  the 
high-spirited  Southerner  that  the  strength  of  a,  nation 
depends  more  upon  the  race  than  upon  the  govern- 
ment. 

The  Government  of  Mexico  is  modeled  after  that 
of  the  United  States ;  but  what  the  pure-blooded  An- 
glo-Saxon could  accomplish,  the  mind  of  the  dark 
races  of  Central  America  could  not  even  compass. 
While  the  former  advanced  with  the  tread  of  a  giant, 
driving  the  copper-colored  race  towards  the  liocky 
Mountains,  and  holding  the  black  race  in  servitude, 
Mexico  surrendered  to  the  optimistic  ideas  of  natural 
race  equality,  which  were  sweeping  over  France  and 
the  Iberian  peninsular.  While  the  United  States,  with 
a  homogeneous  population  of  citizens,  bounded  to  the 
front  rank  of  nations,  her  mongrel  sister  Republic  fell 
to  the  earth  before  a  single  feeble  blow  from  a  handful 
of  brave  and  intelligent  white  men,  under  the  lead  of 
General  Scott.. 

The  gallant  troops  of  South  Carolina,  Georgia,  Ala- 
bama and  Mississippi,  which  followed  the  banner  of 
John  A.  Quitman  and  Jefferson  Davis,  on  the  bloody 
field  of  Buena  Vista,  and  at  the  Belan  Gate  of  iiexico, 
understood  even  at  that  early  day  that  in  a  RepubHc 
4;here  could  be  no  intermediate  station  between  the  slave 
and  the  freeman.  A  freedman,  without  civil  and  polit- 
ical rights,  without  ultimate  incorporation  into  the  body 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.      255 

politic,  was  a  being  unknown  to  the  history  of  Repub- 
lics. So  soon  as  emancipation  was  accompUshed,  the 
tendency  would  inevitably  be  towards  the  retention  of 
the  freedman  by  the  land  owner,  and  his  permanent 
fixture  to  the  soil.  What  would  happen  then  in  a 
State  hke  South  Carolina,  Mississippi  or  Louisiana, 
where  the  Negro  race  predominated,  would  be  what  had 
happened  in  Mexico.  Even  in  the  States  of  Georgia, 
Alabama  and  Florida,  where  mercenary  white  men 
might  unite  their  fortunes  with  the  black  race  it  was 
possible  that  the  whites  would  lose  their  ascendancy. 
The  movement  of  the  emancipated  Negroes  would  be 
towards  the  Gulf  States.  White  immigrants  would 
loathe  a  line  of  march  in  which  they  would  be  doomed 
to  such  fellowship :  and  thus  the  fairest  part  of  the 
South  would  be  given  up  to  the  political  power  of  the 
Negro.  This  political  power  would  step  by  step  ac- 
quire social  power,  and  whether  within  or  without  the 
bond  of  wedlock,  would  finally  blast  the  cotton  pro- 
ducing region  with  a  race  of  hybrids.  How  many 
years  would  be  necessary  for  such  a  result  to  be  reached 
could  only  be  surmised  ;  but  certain  it  was  that  in  less 
than  half  a  century  the  Castilian  Vice  Kingdom  of 
New  Spain  had  cut  loose  from  its  typical  white  man's 
Government,  and  had  become  a  Repubhc  incapable  of 
self-protection. 

To  the  soldiers  of  the  South,  it  appeared  that  in 
this  beautiful  but  accursed  land  Nature  had  vindicated 
her  physiological  law  of  race.  It  was  said  by  Horace 
— '^  Naturam  expellas  furca,  tamen  usque  recurreV 
You  may  turn  nature  out  of  doors  with  violence,  but 
she  will  still  return.  The  diminution  olf  the  whites 
removed  the  source  from  which  the  Mulatto  received 


266      THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

his  light  shade,  and  the  whole  array  of  colors,  Mulatto, 
Mestizo,  Quadroon,  Creole,  Sambo,  and  Chino,  were  now 
reverting  to  the  prevailing  color,  the  copper  of  the 
Indian. 

When  Mr.  Canning  made  his  celebrated  boast  in 
Parliament  that  he  had  created  the  Republics  of  Mexico 
and  Peru,  Columbia,  Bolivia,  and  the  Argentine,  he  did 
not  consider  that  it  was  beyond  his  power  to  create 
races,  and  that  he  was  simply  giving  the  inhabitants  an 
opportunity  to  return  to  the  Indian  type.  The  incor- 
poration of  all  races  into  the  body  politic  of  these  repub- 
lics, and  the  breaking  down  of  all  social  barriers,  simply 
turned  back  the  hand  of  time  three  hundred  years  on 
the  dial.  The  recognition  by  England  of  those  mon- 
grel nations  should  have  been  styled — "  a  recognition 
""  of  the  return  of  the  New  World  to  the  aboriginal 
"Indian  population,  from  whom  no  good  have  ever 
"  come,  and  from  whom  nothing  but  evil  could  be  ex- 
"pected."  Would  not  the  same  physiological  law  hold 
good  in  the  Gulf  States  ?  When  the  negro  shall  have 
prevailed  in  the  cotton  section,  and  familiarity  shall  have 
broken  down  the  social  barriers  between  the  races;  when 
the  half-breeds  shall  have  becoine  so  numerous  as  to 
absorb  every  vestige  of  pohtical  power ;  and  when  the 
pure  whites  shall  have  removed  to  States  in  which  they 
may  be  ruled  and  taxed  by  men  of  their  own  color  and 
race,  will  not  the  hybrids  revert  rapidly  to  the  purer 
negro  type,  and  thus  through  successive  generations  the 
last  drop  of  Anglo-Saxon  blood  be  swallowed  up  in  the 
African  ?  Such  has  been  the  history  of  Mexico ;  why 
might  such  not  be  the  history  of  South  Carolina  ? 

Was  it  to  loQ  hoped  that  the  danger  would  be  averted 
by  the  supply  of  new  material  furnished  the  Anglo- 


THE  CEADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.      257 

Saxon  by  the  more  Northern  States?  On  the  con- 
trary, the  negroes  would  become  massed  in  the  cotton- 
growing  region,  and  their  numbers  would  increase  far 
more  by  concentration  than  the  whites  could  increase 
by  infiltration  from  the  North;  After  a  few  genera- 
tions, it  was  reasonable  to  believe,  nay,  absolutely  cer- 
tain, that  the  hybrids  of  the  Gulf  States  would  exhibit 
quahties  identical  with  those  of  the  mixed  races  of 
Mexico. 

Impoverished,  haughty,  uneducated,  defiant,  bigoted, 
disputatious,  without  financial  credit,  beaten  in  arms,  far 
behind  the  age  in  mechanical  progress  or  social  civiliza- 
tion, and  loaded  with  debt,  Mexico  presented  the  mis- 
erable spectacle  of  a  nation  without  nationality,  of  no 
distinct  race,  and  reposing  honor  and  confidence  in 
worthless  military  leaders.  The  people  found  them- 
selves oppressed  by  those  whom  they  caressed,  a  repub- 
hc  with  all  the  essential  features  of  a  military  despot- 
isni,  a  lawless  nation  which  would  be  more  serviceable 
to  the  human  race  were  it  to  revert  once  more  to  that 
aboriginal  race  which  at  least  built  the  halls  of  the 
Montezumas. 

Would  not  such  be  the  fate  of  the  fairest  territory  of 
her  Anglo-Saxon  sister,  when  four  millions  of  unedu- 
cated negroes  and  mulattoes,  incapable  of  reading  the 
ballots  which  they  cast  for  military  chieftains,  assume 
to  legislate  for  the  Anglo-Saxon  race,  to  hold  the  bal- 
ance of  power  in  Presidential  elections,  and  to  guide 
the  civiHzation  of  the  19th  century  as  Photon  attempted 
to  guide  the  chariot  of  the  sun  when  he  was  wrecked 
on  the  deserts  of  Africa  ? 


CHAPTER    XI. 


WUliam  L.  Yancey  and  the  Mo7itgomery  District— The 
Alabama  Democratic  Resolutions  of  JS/^S — General 
Cass  and  the  /States -Biphtn  Party — The  Nashville  Con- 
vention and  Defeat  of  the  iSecessio7ii,sts — The  Compro- 
mise Measures  of  Clay — Triumph  of  the  Union  Tarty 
all  over  the  South — Defeat  of  Governors  tieahroolc  and 
Quitman — The  Georgia  Resolutions —  Union  Leaders 
and  Sentiment  in  Alabama^  &g.^  &c. 


"  Two  great  powers  that  wi  11  not  live  together  are  In  our  raidst,  tug- 
ging at  each  other's  throats.  They  will  search  each  r>ther  out  though  you 
separate  them  a  hundred  times.  And  if  by  an  insane  blindness  you 
shall  contrive  to  put  oil"  the  issue  and  send  their  unsettled  dispute  down 
to  your  children,  it  will  go  down  gathering  volume  and  strength  at  every 
step,  to  waste  and  desolate  their  heritage.  Let  it  be  settled  now.  Clear 
the  place.  Bring  in  the  champions.  Let  them  put  their  lances  in  rest 
for  the  charge.    Sound  the  trumpet,  and  God  save  the  right !" 

Hknby  Ward  Beecher. 


"  We  confess  that  we  intend  to  trample  under  foot  the  Constitution  of 
this  country.  Daniel  Webster  says  '  you  are  a  law-abiding  people,'  that 
the  glory  of  New  England  is  'that  it  is  a  law-abiding  community.' 
Shame  on  it  if  this  be  true;  if  even  the»i'eligion  of  New  England  sinks 
as  low  as  its  statute  book.  But  I  say  we  are  not  a  law-abidiug  commu- 
nity.   God  be  thanked  for  it." 

WENDELii  PHijiiiiPS,  March,  1849. 


The  conquest  of  Mexico,  and  the  eagerness  with 
which  the  notables  of  that  country  embraced  the  idea 
of  annexation  to  the  United  States,  led  to  the  hope  in 
the  Southern  mind,  that  not  only  Texas  and  a  part  of 
Mexican  territory,  but  the  entire  repubHc,  might  be 
acquired  as  a  result  of  the  war.  General  Quitman 
hastened  to  Washington  and  laid  before  the  President 
a  plan  for  permanent  occupation  of  the  country.     The 


260      THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

plan  was  rejected ;  it  was  very  difficult  to  annex  any 
portion  of  Mexico.  The  enemies  of  Southern  expan- 
sion had  fought  hard  against  Texas.  They  would  fight 
still  harder  to  make  free  temtory  of  the  Mexican  acqui- 
sition. They  would  hsten  to  no  scheme  for  more 
territory.  The  treaty  of  Guadaloupe  Hidalgo  was 
signed  and  ratified,  and  the  American  army  disbanded. 
At  the  close  of  the  Mexican  war,  the  Alabama  Con- 
gressional District,  of  which  Montgomery  was  the  prin- 
cipal town,  was  one  of  the  most  flourishing  regions 
upon  earth.  The  people  were  possessed  of  luxuriant 
cotton  lands  and  of  innumerable  slaves.  They  were 
for  the  most  part  wealthy,  educated  and  accomplished. 
The  art  of  agriculture  was  carried  to  the  highest  point 
of  success,  and  the  theory  of  government  was  the  uni- 
versal study  of  the  citizens.  The  city  of  Montgomery, 
the  birth-place  of  the  Confederacy,  had  been  for  years 
the  residence  of  a  man  whose  brilliant  genius  had  been 
laboriously  trained  and  who  was  destined  to  be  a  leader 
in  those  movements  which  were  to  make  Montgomery 
famous  in  history  for  all  time  to  come.  William 
Lowndes  Yancey,  a  logician  of  a  high  order  of  intellect 
and  an  orator  of  most  captivating  address,  was  then  in 
the  meridian  of  his  powers.  He  was  a  States-Rights 
man  of  the  most  extreme  school,  a  devoted  follower  of 
Calhoun.  Believing  that  the  anti-slavery  movement 
would  not  cease  until  it  invaded  and  destroyed  the 
South,  not  only  politically,  but  socially  and  commer- 
cially, he  opposed  at  every  step  all  efforts  at  compro- 
mise. He  demanded  the  full  measure  of  constitutional 
justice  to  the  South.  The  North  had  no  right  to  put 
a  collar  of  shame  upon  the  neck  ol  the  South  by  her 
Missouri  compromise  lines,  by  her  denial  of  equal  pro- 


*HB '  CRAibLE  OP  T±E  CONFEDERACY.  261 

tection  to  all  kinds  of  property  in  the  common  terri- 
tory. With  Yancey  it  was  not  enough  to  say  that 
slavery  could  never  go  north  of  thirty-six  degrees  thirty 
minutes,  and  that  it  was  immaterial  to  debate  about 
slavery  extension  when  there  were  not  enough  slaves  to 
thoroughly  develop  the  slave  States.  With  him,  the 
denial  of  a  right,  however  abstract,  was  an  act  of  injus- 
tice and  oppression.  The  injustice  must  be  remedied 
or  there  could  be  no  peace.  A  denial  of  justice  was  a 
badge  of  superiority,  and  he  would  never  consent  to 
live  in  union  with  a  people  who  would  refuse  him  any 
muniment  of  right  given  him  by  law.  Impulsiv^e  as  a 
mountain  torrent  dashing  over  rocks,  Ihis  eloquence  had 
a  boldness,  a  coolness,  a  transparency  which  challenged 
admirationJ  There  was  nothing  of  the  froth  of  decla- 
mation m  his  speech,  but  every  leap  of  the  torrent 
struck  a  resounding  blow,  bearing  away  all  opposition 
and  sweeping  the  debris  before  it,  until  it  spread  out 
into  a  broad,  placid,  irresistible  current.  -^  What  Patrick 
FIenry  was  to  the  first  American  Revolution,  William 
L.  Yancey  was  to  the  second. |  But  Yancey  possessed 
that  which  Patrick  Henry  did  not  have — cultivation,  a 
thorough  acquaintance  with  governmental  law,  and  a 
wonderful  command  of  vigorous  English. 

Henry  8.  Foote,  who  played  so  conspicuous  a  part 
as  Governor  of  Mississippi  and  United  States  Senator 
fiom  that  State  during  the  Union  contest  of  1849-50, 
and  who  was  subsequently  a  member  of  the  Confederate 
Congress  with  Mr.  Yancey,  has  given  a  very  just  de- 
scription of  this  remarkable  leader  and  orator.  He 
says  :  "  There  was,  in  Mr.  Yancey's  person,  at  least  in 
"  his  latter  days,  but  little  to  impress  the  casual  behold- 
''  er,  or  to  enkindle  the  sympathies  of  those  who  had  no 


262      THE  CRADLE  OF  tHE  CONFEDERACY. 

"  special  intercourse  with  him.  Tn  stature  he  was  rather 
'•  below  than  above  the  height  of  ordinary  men.  His 
"  face  was  well  shaped,  but  neither  strikingly  hands<)me 
"  or  the  reverse.  His  vestments  were  quite  remarkable 
"  for  their  plainness  and  simplicity,  and  did  not  always 
^'  fit  him  as  well  as  they  might  have  done.  His  aspect 
"  was  in  general  somewhat  lacking  in  animation^  and 
"  often  betrayed  tokens  of  nervous  exhaustion.  His 
"  manners  were  decidedly  reserved,  with  a  percepti- 
"  ble  approximation  of  moroseness.  He  made  no  at- 
"  tempt  to  shine  in  ordinary  converse.  It  is  known 
"  that  he  had  studied  men  closely,  and  had  looked 
"  deeply  into  the  motives  and  purposes  of  those  with 
"  whom  he  had  held  intercourse,  or  whose  movements 
"  in  pubhc  life  had  specially  attracted  his  attention.  In 
"  general  he  was  able  to  keep  the  tempestuous  feelings 
"  of  his  soul  in  a  state  of  stoical  suppression  ;  but  occa- 
*'  sions  sometimes  arose  whtm,  either  having  lost  his 
"  accustomed  power  of  self-control,  or  deeming  it  expe- 
"  dient  to  make  some  display  of  the  stormier  energies 
"  with  which  he  was  endowed,  he  unloosed  all  the  furies 
"  under  his  command  upon  some  noted  antagonist,  and 
"  did  and  said  things  which  those  who  witnessed  his 
",^blime  ravings  never  again  forgot.  *  * 

• "  In  my  judgment,  the  South  has  contained  within 
"  her  hmits  no  such  eloquent  and  effective  political 
"  speaker  as  Wm.  L.  Yancey  since  the  death  of  George 
*•  McDuffie.  When  rising  to  discuss  a  question  of 
"  special'  dignity  and  importance,  his  aspect  and  man- 
"  ner  were  marked  with  mingled  earnestness  and  solem- 
"  nity.  His  exordium  was  always  uttered  with  an 
"  imposing  slowness  and  formaUty.  He  enunciated 
"  every  word  and  syllable  distinctly.     His  voice  was 


THE  CRADLE  OP  THE  CONFEDERACY.  263 

"  clear,  strong  and  sonorous.  He  commonly  spoke  in 
"  the  conversational  tone,  a  little  elevated.  His  ges- 
"  tures  were  few,  but  these  were  most  apt  and  impres- 
"  sive.  He  never  addressed  either  a  deliberative  body 
"  or  a  popular  audience  without  having  previously  mas- 
"  tered  the  subject,  upon  which  he  was  expected  to. 
"  dilate,  in  all  its  parts.  His  acute  and  well-balanced 
"  intellect,  supplied  as  it  was  with  vast  stores  of  informa- 
"  tion  of  almost  every  kind,  generally  enabled  him  to 
"  anticipate  and  respond  effectually  to  whatever  might 
*'  be  said  by  his  adversaries  in  debate.  His  powers  of 
"  sarcasm  were  tremendous^  and  he  sometimes  indulged 
*'  in  a  bitter  and  sneerful  ridicule  which  was  very  diffi- 
"  cult  to  tolerate  patiently.  The  greatest  of  his  speeches 
"  in  Richmond  was  that  which  he  delivered  upon  what 
"  was  known  as  the  Judiciary  question,  in  which  he 
"  took  strong  ground  against  conferring  appellate  juris- 
"  diction  upon  the  Confederate  Supreme  Court  in  cases 
"  originating  in  the  State  courts.  I  had  the  satisfaction 
"  of  hearing  the  whole  of  his  elaborate  argument  on 
"  this  occasion,  and  can  declare  that  it  seemed  to  me  to 
"  be  nearly  equal  in  vigor,  brilliancy  and  classic  orna- 
"  ment  to  some  of  the  best  speeches  of  Webster  or 
"  Pinckney.  Arthur  F.  Hopkins  sat  by  my  side  on 
"  this  interesting  occasion,  and  exclaimed  to  me  more 
''  than  once  that  he  was  now  thoroughly  convinced  that 
"  Mr.  Yancey  was  by  far  the  ablest  of  living  speakers. 
*'  I  have  already  said  that  Mr.  Yancey  had  much 
"  hand  in  the  origination  of  the  late  civil  war,  and  such 
"  was  certainly  the  case ;  but  in  regard  to  his  conduct 
"  in  this  respect,  I  have  long  since  ceased  to  censure 
''  him  with  bitterness.  Trained  in  the  days  of  his  open- 
'^  ing  manhood  in  the  extreme  States-Rights  school  of 


'Jl)4  THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

"  the  South;  he  very  naturally  adopted  certain  plausible 
"  dogmas,  to  the  support  of  which  he  afterwards  devoted 
"  the  best  energies  of  his  splendid  and  gigantic  intel- 
"  lect.  He  really  believed  that,  under  our  system  of 
"  government,  the  States  are  absolutely  sovereign, 
'j  bound  together  only  by  a  league  which  they  may  at 
"  any  moment  dissolve,  and  that  the  Federal  Govern- 
"  ernment,  owing  its  origin  to  States,  as  such,  is  a  mere 
"  agency  established  by  them  for  purposes  of  conveni- 
"  ence,  and  has  no  powers  whatever  save  those  which 
"  have  been  formally  and  specifically  conceded  to  it. 
"  He  devoutly  beheved,  with  Mr.  Calhoun,  that  African 
"  slavery  was  a  vital  and  indispensable  ingredient  of  the 
"  system  of  polity  established  by  our  fathers ;  that, 
"  without  it,  no  freedom,  worthy  of  the  name,  could  be 
"  enjoyed  by  the  white  race  of  this  eontinent,  and  that 
"  the  more  widely  diffused  it  might  become,  the  more 
"  prosperous  and  happy  would  be  the  whole  republic. 

"  Entertaining  these  views,  it  is  not  at  all  wonderful 
"  that  Mr.  Yancey  should  have  sought  to  engraft  upon 
'Uhe  Democratic  political  platform  of  1848  a  resolu- 
"  tion  affirmatively  protective  of  slavery  in  the  terri- 
"  tories.  It  as  Uttle  surprising  that  he  and  those  agree- 
^*  ing  with  him  in  sentiment  should  advocate  disunion 
"in  1851,  because  of  the  admission  of  California  as  a 
"  free  State ;  that  they  should  have  made  an  attempt 
"in  1861  to  persuade  the  Democratic  party  to  tfike 
"  an  '  aggressive  attitude'  in  behalf  of  slavery;  that, 
"  fiiifing  in  this,  he  and  they  should  have  attempted  to 
"  disintegrate  that  party ;  and  that  when,  by  these  pro- 
"  ceediugs,  the  election  of  a  Republican  President  was 
"  brought  about,  secession  was  at  otice  resolved  on  as 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERA.0Y.      2Qty 

"  the  only  means  left,  in  their  opinion,  of  saving  Afri- 
"  can  slavery  from  ultimate  extermination. 

"  I  repeat  that,  far  as  I  am,  and  have  ever  been, 
"from  coinciding  with  Mr.  Yancey  and  his  States- 
"  Rights  adherents  as  to  these  matters,  I  am  not  at  all 
''  inclined,  at  this  moment,  to  heap  opprobrium  upon  his 
"  memory.  His  sincerity  in  utterance  of  his  opinions 
"  I  do  not  at  all  question,  and  it  is  due  to  him  to  say 
'^  that  his  conduct  in  Richmond  as  a  legislator,  during 
*'  the  trying  years  of  the  war  of  the  Rebellion,  was  in 
"  the  highest  degree  marked  with  consistency,  firmness 
"  and  manly  independence.  Whatever  else  may  be 
"justly  said  by  enemies  of  Wm.  L.  Yancey,  these 
"  truths  may  be  safely  asserted  of  him ;  he  never 
"  sought  to  make  money  by  the  war  ;  he  ever  opposed 
"  the  suspension  of  habeas  corpus — a  measure  so  bane- 
"  ful  to  individual  freedom ;  he  never  gave  his  assent 
"  to  the  displacement  of  able  and  gallant  military  com- 
"  manders,  in  order  to  make  way  for  the  incompetent 
"  flivorites  of  a  prejudiced  and  self-willed  executive 
"  chief;  he  never  proposed  to  murder  in  cold  blood  all 
^'  the  prisoners  taken  in  war  [nor  did  any  other  Confed- 
"  erate  leader  propose  such  a  thing.  —Author] ;  he  never 
"  introduced  a  bill  providing  for  the  permanent  establish- 
"  ment  of  martial  law ;  he  never  united  in  a  scheme  for 
"  the  coercing  of  one  of  the  States  deemed  by  him  sover- 
"  eign,  and  constraining  it  to  remain  in  a  confederacy 
"  after  it  had  become  heartily  disgusted  with  it,  and 
"  wished  to  return  to  the  Federal  Union  ;  he  never  voted 
"  for  a  bill  providing  for  the  paynient  of  the  salary  of 
"  the  Confederate  President  in  gold,  whilst  the  Con- 
"  (ederate  soldiers,  in  rags  and  barefoot,  were  refused 
*  the  wretched  pittance  of  depreciated  paper  which  they 


266  THE  ORAiDLE  OF  THE  CONFEBERACY. 

"  had  been  allowed  by  law ;  he  had  no  hand  in  the 
"  unpardonable  burning  of  Richmond,  and,  had  he  sur- 
"  vived  so  long  as  the  month  of  December,  1 864 — 
"  seeing  the  ruin  then  impending  over  the  Confederate 
"  cause — he  would,  I  feel  perfectly  assured,  have  urged, 
"  with  all  the  eloquence  at  his  command,  the  making  of 
''  peace  with  the  Federal  Government,  on  the  honorable 
"  and  advantageous  terms  at  that  time  offered  by  Mr. 
"  Lincoln,  as  all  intelligent  men  now  know. 

"  Future  generations  will  undoubtedly  recognize 
"  Wm.  L.  Yancey  as  one  of  the  ablest,  most  far-seeing, 
"  and  most  statesmanlike  personages  that  took  part  in 
"  the  Confederate  struggle,  as  he  was  undeniably  one  of 
"  the  most  profound  jurists  and  most  eloquent  advo- 
"  cates  that  have  ever  adorned  the  bar  of  the  South 
"  and  Southwest." 

Upon  the  appointment  of  Senator  Wm.  R.  King  to 
the  French  mission,  and  the  election  of  Dixon  TI. 
Lewis  to  succeed  him  in  the  Senate,  the  seat  vacated 
by  Mr.  Lewis  in  the  Lower  House  was  filled  by  the 
election  of  Mr.  Yancey.  At  the  next  election  Mr. 
Yancey  was  again  elected  to  Congress,  but  in  conse- 
quence of  poverty,  resigned  the  seat  before  the  expira- 
tion of  his  term.  At  the  present  day  when  we  see 
poor  men  entering  Congress  and  amassing  great  wealth 
in  a  few  years,  it  may  astonish  many  that  a  mnn  of 
Yancey's  transcendant  eloquence  and  ability  should 
fmd  no  means  of  acquiring  money  at  Washington, 
apart  from  his  meagre  salary.  The  astonishment  of 
such  persons  would  be  increased  when  they  are  told 
that  in  that  day  no  one  dared  to  make  presents,  or  give 
money  or  offer  bribes  in  the  shape  of  large  dividends 


THE  (TRADLte  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.  267 

on  nominal  investments,  to  a  representative  from  the 
South. 

Mr.  Yancey  was  the  acknowledged  leader  of  the 
States-Rights  wing  of  the  Democratic  party.  The 
States-Rights  men  had  gradually  grown  in  strength, 
just  as  the  aggressions  of  the  Abolitionists  became 
bolder,  more  insulting  and  more  harassing ;  and  after 
the  INIexican  war  there  was  but  little  difference  between, 
them  and  their  aUies,  except  as  to  the  proper  remedy 
for  grievances.  One  point  of  difference  however,  which 
afterwards  was  swept  away  by  the  violence  of  sectional 
passion,  was  well  defined  towards  the  close  of  Mr. 
Polk's  administration.  It  was  as  to  the  power  of  Con- 
gress, in  establishing  rules  and  regulations  for  the  gov- 
ernment of  a  territory,  to  exclude  slavery  therefrom  or 
to  empower  the  territorial  legislature,  its  own  agent,  to 
enact  such  exclusion. 

Mr.  Calhoun,  Mr.  Yancey  and  the  States-Rights 
men,  after  1 847,  denied  this  power  in  Congress.  A 
large,  perhaps  the  greater  portion  of  the  Democratic 
party,  before  that  date  and  for  several  years  after,  ad- 
mitted the  power.  It  is  certain  that  the  Whig  party  of 
the  South  generally  admitted  it  down  to  the  decision  in 
the  Dred  Scott  ca5e.  What  is  known  as  the  Missouri 
Compromise,  the  act  by  which  Congress  forbid  slavery 
in  all  the  territory  north  of  thirty-six  degrees  thirty 
minutes,  was  secured  by  Southern  votes.  Lowndes  of 
South  Carolina,  King  and  Walker  of  Alabama,  Pinck- 
NEY  of  Maryland,  Macon  of  North  Carolina,  Barbour 
and  Pleasants  of  Virginia,  Smith  of  South  Carolina, 
Elliott  and  Walker  of  Georgia,  all  voted  for  its  reten- 
tion. Had  it  not  been  suppoi'ted  by  the  South  it  could 
never  have  prevailed.     It  is  true,  that  without  it  Mis- 


268      THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

souri  might  not  have  been  admitted  as  a  slave  State ; 
but  an  inconvenience  like  that  would  not  have  per- 
suaded such  men  to  sustain  the  measure  if  they  had 
believed  it  to  be  unconstitutional.  Mr.  Monroe  held  it 
to  be  a  constitutional  measure.  His  Cabinet,  according 
to  his  own  recollection,  and  according  to  the  diary  of 
Mr.  John  Quincy  Adams,  gave  it  as  their  unanimous 
opinion  that  the  act  was  constitutional.  It  was  held  to 
be  constitutional  by  the  large  bulk  of  both  the  Whig 
and  Democratic  parties,  who  pointed  to  it  as  a  sacred 
compact  for  more  than  thirty  years.  Had  they  believed 
it  to  be  unconstitutional  they  would  never  have  regard- 
ed it  as  sacred. 

No  question  was  made  as  to  this  power  in  Congress 
as  late  as  the  admission  of  Texas  into  the  Union.  The 
joint  resolution  by  which  Texas  was  admitted,  provided 
that  "  in  such  States  as  might  be  formed  out  of  said 
*^  territory  north  of  said  Missouri  Compromise  line 
"  slavery  or  involuntary  servitude,  except  for  crime, 
"shall  be  prohibited."  This  measure  received  the  votes 
of  all  the  States-Rights  men  of  the  House.  The  whole 
South,  Whig  and  Democrat  alike,  voted  for  it.  When 
it  went  to  the  Senate,  Mr.  Buchanan  said  that  he  was 
pleased  with  it  because  "  these  resolutions  went  to  re-es- 
"  tablish  the  Missouri  Compromise,  by  fixing  a  line 
'^  within  which  slavery  was  in  future  to  be  confined." 
As  the  joint  resolution  could  not  become  operative  for 
the  prohibition  of  slavery  in  any  part  of  her  territory 
until  Texas  had  actually  become  a  State  in  the  Union, 
it  would  appejir  that  this  act  of  Congress  went  further 
tian  the  Wilmot  Proviso,  and  actually  effected  the  abo- 
lition ot  slavery  in  a  portion  of  a  sovereign  State.  No 
part  of  Texas  had  ever  become  or  would  ever  become 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.  269 

a  territory  of  the  UDited  States.  Again,  when  the  bill 
for  organizing  the  territory  of  Oregon  was  before  Con- 
gress in  1847,  Mr.  Burt,  of  South  Carolina,  moved  the 
recognition  of  the  Missouri  Compromise  line,  and  every 
Southern  member  voted  for  it.  Subsequently,  in  the 
K?enate,  in  1848,  upon  a  motion  to  extend  the  Missouri 
line  to  the  Pacific,  the  South  voted  for  it  unanimously. 
The  Nashville  Convention  of  1851  favored  the  Missouri 
Compromise,  and  the  caucus  of  Southern  Congressmen, 
through  their  committee  of  fifteen,  accepted  this  line, 
and  adopted  it  as  a  settlement  of  disputes.  Calhoun,  as 
a  member  of  President  Monroe's  cabinet,  did  not  object 
to,  even  if  he  questioned,  the  constitutionality  of  the 
power  of  Congress  to  preclude  slavery  from  the  territo- 
ries. And  so,  as  late  as  1848,  although  opposed  to  the 
principle  of  the  Missouri  Compromise,  he  gave  it  his 
support  in  the  case  of  Oregon.  For  nearly  thirty  years 
neither  he  nor  any  other  States-Rights  leader  ques- 
tioned the  constitutionality  of  the  act.  Mr.  Yancey 
was  among  those  Southern  members  of  Congress  who 
voted  to  apply  the  Missouri  Compromise  to  the  northern 
portion  of  Texas.  By  this  vote  be  distinctly  recog- 
nized the  power  of  Congress  to  prohibit  the  existence 
of  slavery  in  a  future  State  which  might  be  constructed 
from  that  of  Texas,  whether  that  State  should  apply 
with  a  constitution  recognizing  slavery  or  not. 

Alexander  H.  Stephens,  one  of  the  most  pronounced 
of  the  States-Rights  school,  as  late  as  1854,  said  from 
his  seat  in  Congress — ^'  I  say  nothing  of  the  constitu- 
"  tional  view  of  the  question.  When  I  have  been  asked 
"  if  Congress  does  not  possess  the  power  to  impose  re- 
"strictions,  or  to  pass  the  Wilmot  Proviso,  I  have 
*'  waived  that  issue ;  I  never  discuss  it.    On  that  point 


270      THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

"  I  have  told  my  constituents,  and  I  tell  you,  I  treat  it 
"  as  Chatham  treated  it  in  the  British  Parliament  when 
"  the  question  of  power  to  tax  the  colonies  without  rep- 
"  resentation  was  raised  there.  That  question  Chatham 
"  would  not  discuss ;  but  he  told  those  who  were  so 
**  unjustly  exercising  it,  that  if  he  were  an  American 
"  he  would  resist  it.  The  question  of  power  is  not  the 
"  question ;  the  question  is,  is  it  right  to  exercise  it  ?  " 
It  was  as  late  as  February,  1847,  when  Calhoun 
first  denied  the  constitutional  power  of  Congress  to  pro- 
hibit of  itself  or  by  its  delegated  agent,  the  territorial 
legislature,  the  introduction  or  holding  of  slave  property 
in  any  of  the  territories.  This  denial  was  presented  to 
the  public  in  the  shape  of  a  series  of  resolutions  intro- 
duced to  the  Senate.  Although  the  Senate  did  not  act 
upon  them,  they  were  taken  up  and  acted  upon  by 
several  of  the  Southern  States.  Yancey  presented  the 
question  to  the  Democratic  State  Convention  which  as- 
sembled at  Montgomery,  1848,  in  a-  series  of  resolu- 
tions, which  declared : 

1.  That  the  opinion  advanced  and  maintained  by 
some  that  the  people  of  a  territoiy,  in  other  event  than 
in  the  formation  of  a  constitu'ion  preparatory  to  admit 
tance  as  a  State,  can  prevent  the  introduction  or  hold- 
ing of  any  property,  be  it  slave  or  otherwise,  is  a  restric- 
tion as  indefensible  in  principle  and  as  dangerous  in 
practice  as  if  such  restriction  had  been  imposed  by 
Coiigrees. 

2.  That  those  who  hold  that  such  restrictions  may 
be  enforced,  should  not  be  recognized  as  Democrats 

3.  That  the  Democratic   party   of    Alabama    are 
pledged,  under  any  stress  of  political  necessity,  uoji  to 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.      271 

vote  for  any  one  for  President  or  Vice-President  who 
holds  to  such  restrictions. 

Yancey  advocated  these  resolutions  in  a  speech  as 
concisely  logical  as  that  delivered  by  Mr.  Calhoun,  and 
with  all  the  fervor  and  enthusiasm  of  Henry  Clay. 
They  were  adopted  by  the  Convention.  Yakcey  was 
appointed  one  of  the  delegates  to  the  Baltimore  Con- 
vention. He  wrote  to  the  several  gentlemen  whose 
names  had  been  spoken  of  in  connection  with  the  nomi- . 
nation,  asking  a  response  to  the  Alabama  resolutions. 
Mr.  Buchanan  evasively  replied  that  he  favored  the 
application  of  the  Missouri  Compromise  line  to  the 
newly  acquired  territory.  This  was  a  rejection  of  the 
resolutions  so  far  as  more  than  half  the  Common  terri- 
tory was  concerned.  General  Cass  replied  that  he 
considered  the  duty  of  Congress  to  be  limited  to  the 
creation  of  a  proper  gov^nment  for  the  territories, 
leaving  to  the  people  inhabiting  them  to  regulate  their 
internal  concerns  in  their  own  way.  This  was  a  com- 
plete rejection  of  the  resolutions. 

Yancey  was  sent  as  a  delegate  from  Alabama  to  the 
National  Democratic  Convention,  which  was  to  assem- 
ble at  Baltimore.  Foote,  in  his  "  Bench  and  Bar  of  the 
Southwest,"  says : 

"  I  saw  Wm.  L.  Yancey,  for  the  first  time,  in  the  sum- 
"  mer  of,  1 848.  He  had  an  interview  with  Mr.  Calhoun, 
"  in  the  hall  of  the  National  Senate,  when  he  was  on  his 
"  way  to  Baltimore,  where  the  National  Convention  of 
"  the  Democratic  party  were  about  assembling.  Of 
"  what  occurred  at  this  interview,  I  received  authentic 
"  and  satisfactory  information  at  the  time.  Mr.  Cal- 
"houn  and  Mr.  Yancey,  as  well  as  many  other  pro- 
^  slavery  men  in  the  South,  were  not  content  with  the 


272      THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

"'  protection  understood  to  be  given  by  the  Federal 
"  Constitution  to  slavery  in  the  States  where  it  then 
"  existed,  but  desired  to  obtain  for  this  institution  addi- 
''  tional  organic  guarantees.  This  they  hoped  to  secure 
"  through  the  instrumentality  of  the  Democratic  party, 
"  and,  with  a  view  to  this  end,  resolved  to  get,  if  they 
"  could,  a  new  plank  in  the  accustomed  political  plat- 
^'  form  of  that  party,  committing  its  members  to  the 
"  adoption  of  a  distinct  interveiiiion  policy,  and  allow- 
"  ing  slavery  to  be  introduced  into  all  the  vacant  terri- 
"  tory  of  the  Union.  Mr.  Yancey  is  well  known  to 
"  have  proceeded  to  Baltimore  on  the  occasion  referred 
^*  to,  and  to  have  made  an  effort  to  have  such  a  resolu- 
"  tion  as  has  been  described  adopted  by  that  body. 
•"  Failing  in  this,  he  withdrew  from  the  convention  in 
''  disgust,  returned  to  his  own  home  in  Alabama,  and, 
"for  some  years  thereafter,  confined  himself  exclu- 
"  sively  to  the  practice  of  his  profession,  in  which  he 
"  had  already  become  not  a  little  distinguished.  His 
"  devotion  to  the  study  of  law  books  was  such  as  is  not 
*'  often  seen.  Meanwhile,  he  read  scientific  and  literary 
"works  of  acknowledged  merit,  and  labored  with  a 
"  most  unremitting  zeal  to  perfect  himself  in  the  art  of 
"  oratory.  In  a  few  years  his  fame  as  a  jurist  and 
"  as  a  forensic  advocate  was  widely  diffused,  and  he  at- 
"  tained  such  a  degree  of  intellectual  culture  as  placed 
"  him  far  beyond  the  reach  of  all  local  rivalry." 

When  the  National  Democratic  Convention  met,  Yan- 
cey offered  the  Alabama  resolutions,  and  they  were  re- 
jected by  a  vote  of  216  nays  to  only  36  ayes;  so 
fixed  at  that  day  was  the  opinion  of  the  Democratic 
party  that  Congress  had  the  power,  of  itself  or  by  its 
agent,  to  exclude  slavery  from  the  territories.     The 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  OONFEDERACY.  273 

question  with  them  was  not  one  of  power,  but  of  justice. 
That  the  Democracy  of  Alabama  were  not  wedded  to 
the  new  doctrine,  although  they  had  declared  in  con- 
vention that  under  no  stress  of  political  necessity  would 
they  support  a  man  who  did  not  hold  it,  appears  from 
the  fact  that  they  ratified  the  nomination  of  Cass,  and 
when  Yancey  declared  that  under  the  resolutions,  he 
could  not  support  the  nominee  of  the  party,  he  was  vir- 
tually ostracised.  Although  banished,  but  a  few  years 
elapsed  before  the  party  sought  him  in  retirement  and 
accepted  his  leadership. 

While  it  is  difHcult  to  undeistand  with  what  consist- 
ency Yancey,  who,  by  voting  to  apply  the  Missouri 
prohibition  line  to  a  part  of  iexas,  had  recognized  the 
power  of  Congress  to  refuse  admittance  to  a  State  ap- 
plying with  a  constitution  admitting  slavery,  could  now 
lay  down  the  counter-theory  as  the  test  of  loyalty  to 
the  Constitution,  it  is  not  difficult  to  understand  the 
reasons  why  the  new  position  was  taken.  Calhoun,  in 
a  letter  to  a  member  of  the  Alabama  Legislature  at  this 
thne,  said  that  "  instead  of  shunning  we  ought  to  court 
"  the  issue  with  the  North  on  the  slavery  question"; 
that  he  would  go  one  step  farther  and  "  force  the  issue 
"  on  the  North."  "  We  are  now  stronger,  relatively," 
said  Mr.  Calhoun,  ''than  we  shall  be  hereafter  politi- 
"  cally  and  morally."  From  this  day  the  action  of  the 
States-Rights  party  in  Alabama  and  elsewhere  became 
aggressive.  The  policy  was  no  longer  to  find  compro- 
mises by  which  grave  and  ever  recurring  questions 
could  be  evaded.  It  was  now  to  hold  the  Free  Soil  ele- 
ment— the  commercial  States  of  New  England- — to  the 
full  measure  of  the  Constitution.  Whenever  they  forced 
^n  issue,  the  South  was  to  ju^et  it  and  force  another, 


274      THE  CRADLE  OP  Q  HE  CONFEDERACY. 

The  Free  Soilers  had  constantly  refused  to  abide  by  the 
Missouri  Compromise.  They  would  take  nothing  less 
than  the  aboHtion  of  slavery  in  all  the  territories  by 
act  of  Congress.  They  would  permit  no  master  to 
take  his  slave  servant  in  temporary  travel  through  the 
North.  They  would  permit  no  fugitive  slave  to  be  ar- 
rested. They  would  abolish  the  slave  trade  in  the  Dis- 
trict. They  would  abolish  slavery  itself  in  the  District. 
They  would  forbid  the  sale  of  slaves  from  one  State  to 
another.  They  would  forbid  slavery  in  all  places  be- 
longing to  the  Government,  even  within .  the  limits  of 
slave  States.  At  last  they  were  beginning  to  contend 
that  slavery  was  abolished  in  all  the  States  by  the  Dec- 
laration of  Independence. 

In  Alabama  the  contest  of  1848,  the  period  at  which 
the  aggressions  of  the  Northern  extremists  were  met  by 
counter-aggressions  from  Southern  extremists,  was  most 
violent.  The  States-Rights  Whigs,  who  had  joined  the 
Democrats  four  years  before,  now  returned  to  their 
ranks,  and  the  Democracy  threatened  a  rupture  be- 
tween the  friends  of  Yancey  and  that  wing  of  the  party 
which  was  led  by  Benjamin  Fitzpatrick.  The  Fitzpat- 
RiCK  Democrats  held  with  General  iJass,  and  afterwards 
with  Mr.  Douglas,  that  the  honor  and  the  interests  of 
the  South  would  be  subserved  by  permitting  the  people 
of  a  territory  to  decide  for  themselves  whether  they 
would  have  slavery  or  not.  They  opposed  breaking  up 
the  Union  in  the  event  Congress  should  refuse  to  enact 
a  Territorial  Code  of  laws  recognizing  and  protecting 
slavery.  The  Yancey  Democrats  denounced  the  Cass 
doctrine  as  **  squatter  sovereignty  ";  reftised  to  accede 
to  it,  and  threatened  secession  unless  Congress  protected 
slavery  from  the  unfriendly  legislation  of  the  squatters. 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDEEACY.      275 

They  were  ready  and  anxious  to  force  the  issue  upon 
the  North.  ^Fhe  agitations  and  quarrels  of  half  a  cen- 
tury between  the  commercial  and  agricultural  sections 
of  the  country  had  produced  their  fruit.  The  States- 
Rights  men  beUeved  that  now  was  the  time  for  action, 
to  organize  their  clubs,  to  inflame  the  people,  and  to 
precipitate  at  least  the  cotton  States  into  revolution. 

The  Free  Soilers  of  the  North  felt  the  fever  of  ex- 
citement which  was  being  engendered  at  the  South, 
fanned  the  flame,  and  held  out  to  their  exjcited  brethren 
a  wish  that  the  Union  might  be  dissolved.  Senator 
Hale,  of  New  Hampshire,  presented  a  petition  to  the 
United  States  Senate  to  dissolve  the  Union.  Senators 
Seward,  Chase  and  Hale  voted  to  receive  it.  The  ap- 
parent willingness  with  which  the  agitators  of  the  North 
looked  upoii  the  idea  of  dissolution,  and  the  often  re- 
peated threats  and  clamors  for  disunion,  deceived  the 
mass  of  Southern  people  into  the  delusion  that  seces- 
sion might  be  peaceably  accomplished.  Thus  both 
sections  were  learning  to  question  coolly  the  value  of 
the  Union,  and  to  look  upon  its  dissolution  as  an  escape 
from  a  disagreeable  partnership.  The  idea  of  fighting 
to  preserve  such  a  partnership  was  gradually  being  ban- 
ished farther  and  farther  from  the  public  mind. 

While  Faneuil  Hall,  associated  with  so  many  de- 
lightful memories  of  the  struggle  for  independence,  was 
b^ing  thrown  open  to  the  meetings  of  the  Boston  Abo- 
litionists, who  had  inscribed  upon  their  banners — "  The 
"  Constitution,  a  covenant  with  death,  an  agreement 
with  heU,"  and  while  its  doors  were  being  closed  against 
Daniel  Webster,  the  States-Rights  men  of  the  South 
were  busily  at  work.  Calhoun  had  announced  that 
now  was  the  time  for  action.    To  wait  longer  would  be 


276      THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

to  weaken  the  Southern  cause.  The  issue  must  be 
forced  upon  the  North.  To  wait  until  the  North  forced 
it  upon  the  8outh  by  the  purse  and  sword  of  a  sectional 
administration  would  be  suicidal.  The  course  of  Presi- 
dent Taylor  favored  his  schemes.  The  President  had 
thrown  himself  into  the  arms  of  Mr.  Seward.  He 
disapproved  the  plan  of  adjustment  proposed  by  Mr. 
Clay,  and  pronounced  in  favor  of  the  immediate  admis- 
sion of  California  and  in  favor  of  the  Wr  mot  Puoviso. 
The  Southern  Whigs  met  in  council  and  delegated  Mr. 
C.  M.  Conrad  of  Louisiana,  Mr.  Humphrey  Marshall 
of  Kentucky,  and  Mr.  Robert  Toombs  of  Georgia,  to 
wait  upon  him  and  inform  him  that  his  Southern  friends 
would  be  driven  into  ^opposition  if  he  persisted  in  his 
course.  His  reply  indicated  that  he  would  adhere  to 
the  Free  Soil  Whigs  rather  than  lo  the  Southern  Whigs. 
The  breaking  up  of  the  Whig  party  at  that  day  would 
have  thrown  almost  the  entire  population  of  the  South 
into  the  ranks  of  the  States  Ilights  men,  and  would 
have  pre'dpitated  in  1850  the  revolution  which  the 
death  of  General  Taylor  postponed  until  1860. 

The  violation  on  the  part  of  the  North  of  the  rule 
agreed  upon  in  the  Missouri  Compromise ;  by  pressing 
the  Wilmot  Proviso  upon  the  South;  by  excluding 
Southern  property  from  entrance  into  that  territory 
which  had  been  acquired  by  Southern  blood  and  valor ; 
by  denying  to  the  South  an  equal  participation  under 
the  Constitution  of  the  benefit  of  the  common  terri- 
tories, plunged  the  people  of  the  South  into  profound 
agitation.  States-Rights  men  of  all  parties,  Whigs, 
as  well  as  Democrats,  claimed  that  the  Constitution 
which  permitted  and  tolerated  slavery  in  the  States 
jftust  likewise  permit,  tolerate  and  protect  it  in  the  tey- 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.      277 

ritories  so  long  as  they  belonged  to  all  the  States  alike. 
It  was  difficult  to  deny  this  reasoning.  To  those  who 
had  inherited  slaves  and  had  grown  familiar  with  the 
institution  of  slavery,  it  appeared  as  clear  as  the  noon- 
day San.  Mm  like  Benton,  who  leaned  to  the  Free 
Sellers,  contended  that  under  the  Mexican  law,  forbid- 
ding slavery,  California  and  New  Mexico  came  to  the 
Union  with  free  territory,  and  must  remain  free  unless 
some  power  inaugurated  slavery  there.  This  he 
claimed  could  not  be  done  by  Congress,  as  the  Consti- 
tution could  not  establish  slavery,  however  much  it 
might  protect  it  where  it  already  existed.  Men  like 
Webster  contended  that  the  Constitution  was  made  for 
the  States  and  not  for  the  territories ;  that  the  terri- 
tories were  governed  by  rules  and  regulations  made  by 
Congress,  and  not  by  the  articles  of  the  Constitution ; 
and  that  among  those  rules  Congress  might  provide 
one,  although  Mr.  Webster  denied  the  policy  of  such 
action,  against  the  introduction  or  continuance  of 
slavery.  To  the  first  argument,  Mr.  Calhoun  replied 
that  as  soon  as  the  treaty  between  Mexico  and  the 
United  States  was  ratified,  the  sovereignty  and  au- 
thority of  Mexico  became  extinct,  and  the  Consti- 
tution took  the  place  of  Mexican  law.  To  the  second 
he  replied  that  the  rules  and  regulations  adopted  by 
Congress  for  the  government  of  the  territories  must  be 
constitutional  and  could  not  be  arbitrary,  and  that  in 
framing  them  the  right  of  the  people  of  the  South  to 
enjoy  their  property  in  the  common  territory  must  be 
observed. 

Kesistance  to  the  several  measui-es  before  Congress 
became  the  cry  of  the  States-Rights  party.  In  Mis- 
sissippi, a  county  meeting  proposed  a  coiiyention  at 


278  THE  tJRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY* 

Nashville  of  all  the  Southern  States,  to  take  steps  for 
a  redress  of  grievances.  In  South  Carolina,  in  Georgia 
and  in  Alabama,  mass  meetings  were  held  in  almost 
every  county,  denouncing  the  bills,  and  counseling  re- 
sistance in  the  event  they  should  become  law.  These 
meetings  were  participated  in  by  States  Rights  Whigs 
as  well  as  Democrats,  although  the  great  bulk  of  the 
protestants  were  from  the  Democratic  ranks.  The 
Whigs  for  the  most  part  were  content  to  remain  quiet 
and  await  the  issue.  The  members  of  the  General 
Assembly  of  Alabama,  at  an  informal  meeting,  nomi- 
nated delegates  to  the  proposed  Nashville  convention. 
They  were  selected  from  both  of  the  political  parties. 
Among  those  who  attended,  were  Benjamin  Fitzpatrick, 
Wm.  Cooper,  John  A.  Campbell,  Thos.  J.  Judge,  John 
A.  Winston,  L.  P.  Walker,  Wm.  M.  Murphy,  Nich 
Davis,  Reuben  C.  Shorter,  Thos.  A.  Walker,  Reuben 
Chapman,  James  Abercrombie,  Wm.  M.  Byrd — men  of 
the  highest  position  in  the  State,  of  enlarged  views,  and 
of  the  strictest  integrity.  Many  of  those  who  attended 
the  convention  did  so  with  a  view  to  prevent^extreme 
action. 

The  convention  met  June  3,  1850.  The  compro- 
mise measures  proposed  by  Mr.  Clay  were  then  pend- 
ing, but  the  impression  prevailed  that  they  would  be 
rejected.  Wm.  L.  Sharkey,  Whig,  was  made  President 
of  the  convention.  In  his  introductory  speech  he  took 
occasion  to  say  that  they  met,  not  to  dissolve  the  Union, 
but  to  preserve  it.  The  views  of  Mr.  Sharkey,  how- 
ever, were  not  the  views  of  the  convention.  While 
the  majority  of  the  Virginia,  Alabama  and  Tennessee 
delegations  opposed  the  whole  design  of  the  meeting, 
the  delegates  from  South  Carolina,  Mississippi,  Texas 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  COkPEDEEACY.      27^ 

and  other  States  favored  a  clear  declaration  of  resist- 
ance. John  A.  Campbell,  of  Alabama,  afterwards  a 
Justice  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States, 
prepared  and  read  the  resolutions.  They  were  cautious 
and  prudent,  condemning  the  Wilmot  Proviso  and  the 
other  proposed  hostile  legislation,  but  concluding  not  to 
advise  a  method  of  resistance,  in  the  confident  expecta- 
tion that  Congress  would  not  adjourn  without  a  final 
settlement  of  the  questions  in  dispute.  These  resolu- 
tions were  a  substantial  defeat  of  the  South  Carolina 
programme ;  but  to  show  the  sentiment  of  the  conven- 
tion an  address  was  prepared  to  accompany  the  resolu- 
tions. This  address  not  only  denounced  the  several 
independent  propositions  before  Congress,  but  also  de- 
nounced the  pending  compromise  of  .^^r.  Clay.  Thomas 
J.  Judge,  of  Alabama,  moved  to  strike  out  that  part  of 
the  address  condemnatory  of  the  compromise.  The  Ala- 
bama delegation  sustained  Mr.  Judge,  as  did  portions 
of  other  delegations,  but  the  motion  failed.  Mr.  Aber- 
CROMBiE,  of  Alabama,  moved  that  the  vote  of  each  indi- 
vidual be  recorded ;  and  thus  it  was  seen  that  the  Whigs 
of  the  convention  generally  voted  to  accept  the  com- 
promise, and  the  Democrats  generally  voted  against  its 
acceptance.  Mr.  Sharkey  declined  to  vote  upon  the 
proposition  to  strike  out.  He  spoke  in  favor  of  it,  but 
was  induced,  because  of  his  position  as  President,  to  re- 
frain from  recording  his  vote.  The  convention  ad- 
journed to  be  called  together  by  President  Sharkey 
after  the  action  of  Congress  on  the  compromise  meas- 
ures. He  declined  to  call  them  together  again,  and 
thus  the  movement  for  concerted  resistance  fell  still-born. 
Upon  the  return  of  the  Alabama  delegates' from 
Nashville,  a  meeting  was  held  at  Montgomery  to  ratify 


280      THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

the  action  of  the  convention.  Mr.  Yancey  addressed 
the  meeting  with  his  usual  ability  and  earnestness.  He 
said  that  it  was  his  belief  that  the  North  would  not  do 
the  South  justice,  that  it  was  "  time  to  set  our  house 
"  in  order/'  and  to  sustain  Texas  if  need  be  with  the 
bayonet.  This  appeal  of  Mr.  Yancey  tended  to  arouse 
the  spirit  of  especially  the  young  men.  It  operated 
powerfully  upon  those  who  had  volunteered  in  defence 
of  the  rights  of  Texas  and  had  fought  the  battles  of 
Mexico.  »  When  Texas  won  her  independence  the  Rio 
Grande  from  its  niputh  to  the  source  was  yielded  up  by 
Mexico  as  her  western  boundary.  But  now  the  Free 
Soilers  were  intent  upon  carving  out  a  territory,  to  be 
called  New  Mexieo,  trom  the  soil  of  Texas,  with  the 
sole  object  of  making  it  a  li:ee  IState.  This  was  so 
flagrant  a  violation  of  the  rights  of  Texas  that  the 
eloquence  of  Yancey,  in  denunciation  of  the  scheme, 
aroused  a  spirit  of  injury  and  resentment  in  the  breast 
of  thousands  of  those  who  still  hoped  for  a  satisfactory 
adjustment  of  the  dispute. 

From  the  meeting  of  the  Nashville  Convention  in 
June  to  the  passage  by  the  Senate  of  Mr.  Clay's  com- 
promise measures  in  August,  pohtical  excitement  was 
intense.  The  Abolitionisms  denounced  the  proposed 
fugitive  slave  law  as  violative  of  morality.  The  Free 
Soilers  rejected  by  repc3ated  votes  in  Congress  every 
proposition  to  apply  the  Missouri  Compromise  line  to 
the  new  territory.  The  obstinacy  of  the  anti-slavery 
men  was  met  by  an  equal  obstinacy  at  the  bouth.  The 
Democratic  press  were  almost  unanimous  in  repudiation 
of  Mr.  Clay's  measures.  The  Southern  Rights  associa- 
tions denounced  the  compromise.  The  Montgomery 
Advertiser  and  Gazette^  one  of  the  leading  journals  of 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.      281 

Alabama,  made  incessant  assaults  upon  the  several 
measures  of  compromise  and  called  for  their  rejection, 
although  it  was  very  evident  that  their  rejection  would 
be  followed  instantly  by  the  secession  of  South  Caro- 
lina. In  South  Carolina,  and  among  the  States-Rights 
men,  especially  in  Mississippi,  Alabama  and  Georgia,  it 
was  hoped  that  the  plan  of  adjustment  would  fail,  the 
secessionists  being  confident  that  now  was  the  hour  to 
strike. 

On  the  other  hand  the  dominant,  but  for  awhile  sup- 
pressed, sentiment  of  the  people  was  in  favor  of  the 
plan.  The  undercurrent  of  patriotism  hoped  that  the 
compromise  might  succeed.  In  the  language  of  Clai- 
borne, writing  before  the  late  war  a  memoir  of  Quit- 
man :  "  But  as  the  boldest  tremble  on  the  verge  of  eter- 
"  nity,  and  shrink  from  the  dark  abyss  beyond  which 
"  all  is  uncertain,  so  they  were  willing  to  postpone  for 
"  posterity  this  dread  solution.  Not  one  of  them  but 
"  would  have  shed  his  blood  freely  for  his  country,  and 
"  now  they  clung  to  this  compromise  as  the  mariner 
"  clings  to  the  last  plank  in  the  surging  seas.  Let 
"  those  who  teel  themselves  infallible  sit  in  inexorable 
"judgment  on  the  motives  of  their  fellows,  and  con- 
"  demn  Clay,  Benton,  Webster  and  Calhoun,  the  lead- 
"  ing  advocates  of  the  plan  of  reconciliation.  Such 
"judgment  is  not  for  me.  Had  these  four  men  pro- 
"  nounced  the  words  '  No  Compromise,'  war  would  most 
"probably  have  ensued — fratricidal  war!  And  who 
"  knows  but  that  the  God  of  vengeance  and  of  right- 
"  eousness  would  have  stamped  upon  us  the  brand  of 
"  Cain,  and  sent  us  to  wander  over  the  earth  vagabonds 
"  among  the  nations  ? " 

Upon  the  passage  of  the  compromise  measures  Gov- 


282      THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

ernor  Seabrook,  of  South  Carolina,  wrote  to  Governor 
Quitman,  of  Mississippi,  to  know  whether  he  would  call 
the  Legislature  together  to  consider  grievances.  Quit- 
man repUed  that  he  had  issued  his  proclamation  con- 
vening that  body  November  1 8th.  Seabrook  expressed 
his  gratification,  and  said  that  it  was  policy  for  South 
CaroHna  not  to  take  the  initiative,  but  that  "slje  is 
"  ready  and  anxious  for  immediate  separation  from  the 
"  Union."  The  General  Assembly  of  South  CaroHna 
voted  resolutions  suggesting  a  Southern  Congress,  to 
meet  at  Montgomery,  June  2d,  1852.  They  voted 
also  the  sum  of  $350,000  to  arm  the  State.  The  feel- 
ing in  Texas  was  apparently  as  deep  as  that  in  Missis- 
sippi. That  State  earnestly  protested  against  that 
portion  of  the  compromise  which  cut  away  her  territory 
north  of  thirty-six  degrees  thirty  minutes  and  added  it 
to  N^w  Mexico.  She  denied  the  right  of  Congress  to 
dismember  a  State  for  any  purpose,  and  she  denied  the 
policy  of  doing  so  simply  to  appease  the  Free  Soil  pro- 
fessed regard  for  the  sanctity  of  the  Missouri  Compro- 
mise line.  Governor  Bell  convoked  the  Texas  Legis- 
lature and  called  for  one  thousand  volunteers  to  defend 
the  unity  of  Texas.  General  Quitman,  writing  to  Gen- 
eral Pinckney  Henderson,  said  that  he  was  willing  to 
draw  his  sword  for  Texas,  and  that  so  soon  as  a  collision 
of  arms  appeared  inevitable  he  would  convene  the  Mis- 
sissippi Legislature.  Soon  after,  he  issued  his  procla- 
mation, basing  the  call  upon  outrages  imposed  upon  the 
South  by  the  compromise  legislation.  Upon  the  meet- 
ing of  the  Legislature  he  advised  a  call  for  a  State  Con- 
vention to  act  in  concert  with  other  States,  or  separately, 
in  changing  the  relations  of  the  State  with  the  Federal 
Government.     The  Legislature  decided  to  call  a  con- 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDEEACY.      283 

Vention  for  September,  185  L  For  the  period  of  one 
year,  therefore,  the  people  of  Mississippi  were  greatly 
agitated  upon  the  question  of  acceptance  or  rejection 
of  the  compromise.  The  Whigs,  led  -by  Sharkey;  aided 
by  a  strong  detachment  of  Democrats,  formed  a  Union 
party,  aroused  the  people,  returned  a  majority  of  the 
State  Convention,  and  elected  Senator  Henry  S.  Foote 
Governor  over  Col.  Jefferson  Davis.  Governor  Quit- 
man had  been  the  original  candidate  against  Mr.  Foote, 
but  had  retired  from  the  canvass  when  the  people  pro- 
nounced against  secession  in  the  election  of  members  of 
the  convention.  Mr.  Davis  was  nominated  towards 
the  close  of  the  canvass.  The  issue  of  secession,  being, 
presented  clearly  and  distinctly  to  the  people  of  Mis- 
sissippi, it  was  clearly  and  distinctly  repudiated. 

In  Georgia  the  public  excitement  was  quite  as  intense 
as  in  Mississippi,  South  Carolina  and  Texas.  There  a 
State  convention  was  also  called  to  consider  the  meas- 
ure and  remedy  for  grievances.  In  the  election  of 
members  a  large  majority  of  Union  men  were  returned. 
The  resolutions  of  that  convention,  known  as  the 
"  Georgia  Platform  of  1850,"  were  reported  by  Charles 
J.  Jenkins,  a  Whig,  and  an  eminent  lawyer.  Alexan- 
der H.  Stephens  was  one  of  the  committee  who  reported 
them.  It  was  resolved,  that  as  our  fathers  yielded  to 
compromise  to  frame  the  Constitution,  they  should  yield 
somewhat  for  its  continuance ;  that  while  not  approving 
all  the  measures  of  adjustment,  they  accepted  and 
abided  by  them :  and  that  Georgia  should  resist  to  the 
utmost  any  effort  to  interfere  with  the  rights  of  the 
people  of  the  South  under  the  compromise.  Nothing 
was  said  as  to  the  right  of  secession ;  Mr.  Stephens  and 
other  Whigs  upon  the  committee  believing  in  that  right. 


284      THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

In  the  election  for  Governor,  Howell  Cobb,  the  candi- 
date of  the  Union  party,  was  elected  by  an  overwhelm- 
ing majority. 

Even  in  South  Carolina  the  Union  party,  uniting 
their  forces  with  the  Co-operation  party,  exhibited  such 
unexpected  strength,  that  it  was  clear  that  an  attempt 
at  separate  secession  would  meet  resistance  within  her 
own  borders ;  that  the  call  of  a  Federal  marshal  to  sus- 
tain a  mandate  of  a  Federal  Court,  would  have  rallied 
to  his  support  a  vast  number  of  determined  citizens,  and 
precipitated  civil  war  in  every  district. 

General  Quitman,  to  whom  an  appeal  had  been  made 
to  take  the  leadership  in  the  secession  movement,  saw 
that  even  the  Gulf  States  would  refuse  to  act  in  concert. 
Writing  to  Colonel  John  S.  Preston  of  South  Carolina, 
he  said  that  the  only  way  to  arouse  the  South  was  for 
one  State  to  secede,  that  the  South  would  be  startled, 
and  the  people  be  compelled  to  take  sides  upon  a  plain 
issue  of  coercion.  Said  he :  "  Should  the  Federal 
'"  Government  attempt  to  employ  force,  an  active  and 
"  cordial  union  of  the  whole  South  would  be  instantly 
"  ejected,  and  a  complete  f^outhern  Confederacy  organ- 
'•'  ized."  BeUeving  this  to  be  true  the  convention  of 
Southern  Rights  Associations  met  at  Charleston  and 
arrived  at  the  conclusion  with  but  few  dissenting  voices, 
that  although  co-operation  was  in  every  respect  desir- 
able, still,  resistance  alone  by  South  Carolina  was  to  l*- 
preferred  to  obedience  to  the  compromise  laws.  Men 
like  BuTLEii,  Barnwell,  and  Orr,  opposed  separate 
action,  while  men  like  Pettigrd,  opposing  secession  in 
either  way,  threw  their  numbers  on  the  side  of  co-op- 
eration. The  people  of  South  Carolina  met  in  conven- 
tion, May,  1851.     The  two-thirds  majority  necessary 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.      285 

to  pass  the  ordinance  for  separate  secession  was  wantr 
in^ ;  the  minority  report  recommending  co-operation 
was  ably  advocated  by  Mr.  Orr,  and  finally  com- 
manded the  support  of  more  than  one-third  of  the 
convention. 

In  Alabama  the  contest  waged  as  warmly  as  in  the 
other  States,  and  it  was  now  that  the  Union  principles, 
taught  the  people  by  the  Whigs  and  Jackson  Demo- 
crats in  the  campaign  of  1840,  became  their  guide. 
Brave,  impetuous,  spirited  and  defiant,  it  was  difficult 
for  her  citizens  to  regard  the  aggressions  of  New  Eng- 
land with  patience.  They  saw  their  i'riends  reviled  as 
inhuman;  their  own  fathers, as  slave  holders, read  from 
the  church  by  the  anti-slavery  party  of  the  North  ; 
they  saw  the  post  offices  teeming  with  incendiary  pub- 
lications ;  the  United  States  flag  displaced  by  the  State 
flag  on  the  Massachusetts  State  House  ;  and  the  Con- 
stitution nuUified  by  the  passage  of  what  was  called 
personal  liberty  bills.  Not  only  nullification,  but  they 
heard  disunion  openly  proclaimed  by  the  "  Emancipa- 
"  tor,"  and  other  kindred  newspapers  ;  they  saw  the 
leading  Free  Soil  journal  pubHshing  an  ode  addressed  to 
the  flag  of  the  United  States—*^  Tear  down  that  flaunt- 
"  ing  lie."  They  saw  the  Abolitionist,  Garrison,  ad- 
mitted to  Faneuil  HaU,  and  its  doors  closed  against 
Daniel  Webster,  because  of  his  opposition  to  the  Wil- 
mot  Proviso.  In  spite  of  all  these  outrages,  spurning 
the  flag,  trampling  on  the  Constitution,  nuUifying  laws, 
and  rending  the  very  churches  in  twain,  the  Union  men 
of  Alabama  did  not  despond  nor  despair.  They  saw 
that  the  outcry  against  "  the  slave  power  "  was  simply 
an  electioneering  scheme  of  politicians  at  the  North, 
that  the  South  had  not  the  slaves  with  which  to  pppu-^ 


286      THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

late  territories  as  fast  as  the  North  could  populate  them 
with  European  immigrants,  and  with  their  own  drifting 
anti-slavery  people ;  that  the  preservation  of  the 
balance  of  power  in  the  Lower  House  of  Con2:ress  was 
an  impossibility,  and  that  its  preservation  in  the  Senate 
was  doomed  by  the  inability  of  the  South  to  keep  pace 
with  the  North  in  point  of  numbers ;  that  the  preser- 
vation of  the  rights  of  the  South  was  only  possible  by 
a  union  of  right  thinking  men  North  and  South ;  and 
that  slavery  could  be  protected  only  under  the  flag  of 
the  Union.  Above  all,  they  saw  the  greatness  and 
glory  of  our  infant  Republic ;  the  freedom  of  thought, 
speech  and  action  permitted  in  this,  the  last  and  only 
refuge  of  freemen ;  the  hght  burden  of  Government ; 
and  the  opportunities  for  fortune,  peace,  contentment 
and  happiness.  "  Honor  and  praise,"  •  said  Rdfus 
Choate  "  to  the  eminent  men  of  all  parties  who  rose 
"  that  day  to  the  measure  of  a  true  greatness ;  who 
"  remembered  that  they  had  a  country  to  preserve  as 
"  well  as  a  local  constituency  to  gratify;  who  laid  all 
"  the  wealth  and  all  the  hopes  of  illustrious  lives  on  the 
"  altar  of  a  hazardous  patriotism ;  who  reckoned  all  the 
"  sweets  of  a  present  popularity  for  nothing  in  compar- 
"  ison  with  that  more  exceeding  weight  of  glory  which 
"follows  him  who  seeks  to  compose  an  agitated  and 
"  to  save  a  sinking  land." 

For  the  purpose  of  calling  out  the  Union  sentiment 
of  the  State,  a  mass  meeting  was  held  at  Montgomery 
s.oon  after  the  passage  of  the  compromise  measures.  It 
was  presided  over  by  judge  I^enajah  S.  Bibb,  brother 
of  the  first  two  Governors  of  Alabama,  and  cousin  of 
one  of  the  colleagues  of  Henry  Clay,  in  the  United 
States  Senate.    Among  the  orators  of  the  occasion 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.      287 

was  James  Abercrompie,  who  had  served  many  years 
in  both  houses  of  the  Alabama  Legislature,  was  after- 
wards a  member  of  Congress  from  the  Montgomery 
district,  and  who  had  headed  the  Clay  electoral  ticket 
in  1844;  Thomas  J.  Judge,  a  promising  lawyer  of 
Lowndes  county,  who  had  also  served  with  distinction 
in  the  Legislature,  and  who  had  striven,  but  unsuccess- 
fully, to  strike  from  the  Nashville  address  the  denunci- 
ation of  the  compromise ;  Henry  W.  Milliard,  an  elo- 
quent and  cultivated  orator,  who  had  long  adorned  the 
Whig  cause,  had  served  in  Congress  and  represented 
the  country  abroad ;  and  Thomas  H.  Watts,  a  young 
lawyer  of  growing  reputation,  of  large  practice,  un- 
bounded personal  popularity,  and  who  was  destined 
subsequently  to  become  a  Governor  of  his  State,  and 
the  Attorney  General  of  the  Southern  Confederacy. 

The  resolutions  of  the  meeting  in  which  these  men 
participated  expressed  a  warm  and  confident  attachment 
to  the  Union  and  denounced  as  unnecessary  and  dan- 
gerous the  systematic  and  formidable  organization,  in 
progress  in  South  Carolina,  aided  and  abetted  in  certain 
portions  of  other  States,  especially  Georgia  and  Missis- 
sippi, having  for  its  object  violent  resistance  to  the 
compromise  acts.  A  letter  was  read  from  Senator 
William  R.  King,  in  which  he  said  that  he  could  see 
no  justifiable  ground  for  resorting  to  these  revolution- 
ary measures,  which  he  regretted  to  find  were  openly 
advocated  by  some  of  our  worthiest  citizens ;  with  such 
men  he  had  no  sympathy;  he  was  no  disunionist. 
Letters  of  a  similar  character  were  read  from  other  dis- 
tinguished Alabamians.  Charles  J.  Jenkins,  of  Geor- 
gia, wrote  that  at  present  he  could  see  "  no  cause  for 
^'  the  revolutionary  right  of  secession."    Evidently  a 


288  THE   CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

forniidable  fraction  of  the  Democratic  party  were  favor- 
able to  acceptance  ot  the  compromise. 

Cotemporaueously  with  this  meeting,  Suites-Rights 
associations  sprung  up  ail  over  the  State  of  Alabama. 
They  breathed  hostihty  to  the  compromise  and  threat- 
ened resistance ;  without,  however,  naming  the  method 
of  resistance.  They  stigmatised  the  Union  men  as 
submissionists.  The  Montgomery  States- Rights  Asso- 
ciation took  issue  with  the  Union  meeting  and  sent  a 
written  challenge  to  the  Unionists  to  meet  them  in  pub- 
lic debate.  The  Advertiser  and  Gazette  daily  assailed 
the  compromise,  applauded  the  followers  of  Yancey, 
and  denounced  the  Union  men  by  name.  Yet  all  this 
time,  the  editor  of  that  journal.  Col.  J.  J.  Seibels,  a  gen- 
tleman who  had  commanded  a  regiment  in  the  Mexican 
war  and  stood  hii^h  as  a  citizen  and  a  lawyer,  submitted 
to  the  people  no  plan  of  resistance.  He  was  a  member 
of  the  States-Rights  Association.  If  his  remedy  was 
not  by  going  out  of  the  Union,  it  must  have  been  by 
repealing  the  compromise  legislation  Yet  that  legisla- 
tion could  not  be  repealed,  for  California  was  already 
admitted;  and  the  compromise  gave  the  South  and 
North  equal  rights  in  all  the  teriitory  acquired  from 
Mexico.  It  also  gave  the  South  protection  for  her  fu- 
gitives. It  is,  therefore,  fair  to  infer  that  Colonel  Sei- 
bels was  in  favor  of  secession  by  the  most  dkect  means. 
While  Yancey  and  Seibels  were  actuated  by  identical 
prin(;iples,  the  clubs  with  which  they  ai^ted  were  divided 
as  to  the  proper  redress  for  grievances — whether  seces- 
sion should  be  accomplished  by  separate  State  action, 
or  by  co-operative  action  after  deliberation  in  a  South- 
ern Congress.  At  this  point  it  must  be  borne  in  mind 
that  while  men  like  Seibels,  of  Alabama,  and  Barnwell, 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.      289 

of  South  Carolina,  favored  co-operation  of  the  slave 
States  as  the  best  and  most  certain  step  to  secession, 
others  favored  co-operation  because,  unwilling  to  be 
ranked  as  submissionists,  but  yet  firmly  opposed  to  dis- 
union in  any  shape,  they  looked  upon  co-operation  as  a 
bungling  and  cumbersome  machine  which  must  invaria- 
bly prevent  secession,  as  it  had  recently  done  at  Nash- 
ville. One  branch  of  the  co-operationists  were  seces- 
sionists ;  another,  and  by  far  the  larger,  branch  were 
Union  men.  It  was  the  timidity  of  this  last  branch, 
who  advocated  co-operative  resistance  while  seeking  to 
prevent  resistance,  that  ten  years  later  placed  them  in 
a  false  position  and  gave  the  control  of  the  State  into 
the  hands  of  the  separate  secessionists. 

To  settle  the  question  as  to  the  mode  of  redress,  the 
Pleasant  Hill,  Dallas  county.  Club  resolved  that  where- 
as there  was  a  difference  of  opinion  about  the  mode  of 
resistance,  a  State  Convention  should  meet  and  decide 
the  matter.  The  Advertiser  and  Gazette  joined  in  this 
call,  declaring  that  the  great  object  and  the  inevitable 
end  of  the  Union  movement  "  is  and  will  be  the  aboli- 
"  tion  of  slavery  throughout  the  United  States,  and  the 
"  people  had  as  well  prepare  to  resist,  or  make  up  their 
" minds  to  submit  to  it  now'''  The  State  Convention 
of  States-Rights  clubs  met  at  Montgomery,  February 
10,  1851.  Thomas  Williams,  of  Montgomery,  a  na- 
tive of  South  Carolina,  was  made  President.  Adam  C. 
Felder,  also  a  native  of  South  Carolina,  was  made  Sec- 
retary.  Among  the  prominent  gentlemen  who  partici- 
pated in  the  meeting  were  W.  L.  Yancey,  Samuel  J. 
RiQP,  Joel  E.  Matthews,  John  A.  Elmore,  David 
Clopton,  George  Goldthwaite,  J.  J.  Seibei^,  Abram 
Martin,  A.  P.  Bagby  and  B.  F.  Saffold. 


290      THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  COKFEDERACY. 

The  Convention,  after  rehearsing  the  grievances  of 
the  South  and  the  unsatisfactory  character  of  the  com- 
promise legislation,  resolved  "  that  a  tame  submission 
"  to  or  a  patient  acquiescence  in  this  hostile  and  uncon- 
"  stitutional  legislation  would  not  in  our  [their]  opinion 
"  be  conducive  to  the  peace,  happiness,  prosperity  and 
honor  of  the  Southern  States."  They  resolved,  further, 
that  all  old  parties  should  be  suspended,  that  a  new 
Southern  party  should  be  formed,  that  the  Governor 
should  call  the  Legislature  together  for  the  passage  of 
an  act  enabling  the  people  to  elect  delegates  to  a  South- 
ern Congi'ess ;  that  if  the  Governor  should  fail  to  do 
so,  the  people  are  advised  to  open  polls  and  hold  an 
election  for  such  purpose,  and  that  should  such  South- 
ern Congress,  when  assembled,  decide  that  the  Southern 
Stal  s  should  secede  from  the  Union,  and  if  one  or  more 
States,  in  accordance  with  that  decision,  should  actually 
secede,  it  would  be  the  duty  and  the- interest  of  Ala- 
bama als'>  to  secede,  and  to  aid  in  the  formation  of  a 
Southern  Confederacy. 

This  action  of  the  Convention  did  not  satisfy  the 
separate  secession  wing  of  the  party,  nor  did  it  satisfy 
the  opposing  party.  The  separate  action  men  looked 
upon  the  election  of  a  Southern  Congi'ess  by  all  the 
Southern  States  as  a  virtual  abandonment  of  resistance, 
for  it  was  evident  that  a  majority  of  such  a  Congress 
would  never  decide  for  secession.  Virginia,  Tennes- 
see, Kentucky  and  Missouri  would  be  a  unit  against  it, 
and  the  other  States  would  be  more  or  less  divided. 
To  the  Union  men  it  appeared  that  the  Convention  were 
resolving  that  "  I  dare  not "  should  wait  upon  "1  woyld." 
Thereupon  the  Union  leaders  used  every  exertion  to 
force  the  States-Rights  associations  to  a  more  definite 


THE  CEADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.      291 

declaration  of  their  intentions.  To  all  these  efforts  Col. 
Seibels,  in  his  journal,  replied :  "  If  Mr.  Watts  and  his 
"  Federal  Consolidation  Fillmore  friends  could  get  us  to 
"  make  this  issue  before  the  people,  he  is  confident  of 
"  success — for  he  is  sjitisfied  that  the  Secessionists  are 
"  in  a  great  minority  in  the  State.  =^  #  *  * 
"  Now,  so  far  as  we  are  concernet^,  we  shall  not  present 
"  the  issue  of  secession,  whatever  our  individual  opinion 
"  on  the  subject  may  be,  but  we  shall  unite  and  go  with 
"  the  States-Rights  men  of  the  State  who  are  opposed  to 
"  your  absolute,  unconditional-submission  doctrines  with 
"  the  old  obnoxious  doctrine  of  Federal  Whiggery 
"  combined." 

Mr.  Yancey  was  not  satisfied  with  this  half-aggres- 
sive, half-defensive  movement.  He  was  not  one  of 
those  who  rode  like  the  Mexican  lancers  at  Contreras, 
starting  at  a  charge  with  ribbons  and  pennants  dancing 
to  the  wind,  and  as  they  near  the  point  of  concussion 
subsiding  to  a  gallop,  then  to  a  trot,  then  to  a  walk,  and 
finally  to  a  halt.  His  policy  was  to  charge  with  accel- 
erated velocity,  with  lance  in  rest  and  helmet  down, 
striking  for  the  centre  of  the  enemy's  line.  The  move- 
ment which  Mr.  Yancey  favored  was  that  of  the  leading 
statesmen  of  South  Carolina — separate  State  action. 
It  is  true  that  in  December,  1 850,  the  South  Carolina 
Legislature  resolved  to  suggest  and  to  send  delegates  to 
a  Southern  Congress  to  be  held  at  Montgomery,  and  to 
call  a  State  Convention  for  consideration  of  the  action 
of  the  proposed  Congress,  but  it  is  also  true  that  the 
people  were  in  advance  of  their  representatives.  The 
idea  of  a  co-operative  movement  was  seen  to  be  futile. 
The  Nashville  Convention  had  met  with  delegates  regu- 
larly appointed  from  only  two  States,  South  Carolina 


292      THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

and  Mississippi ;  and  the  latter  of  these  had  provided 
that  the  action  of  the  Congress  should  be  submitted  to 
a  vote  of  the  people.  It  had  proven  a  fiasco,  which 
had  retarded  rather  than  advanced  the  secession  move- 
ment. During  the  winter  session  of  1850  of  the  South 
Carolina  Legislature  the  separate-action  party  grew  in 
strength  daily,  until  in  the  following  May  Governor 
Means  wrote  to  General  Quitman  that  "  there  is  now 
"  not  the  shghtest  doubt  but  that  the  next  Legislature 
"  will  call  the  Convention  (State)  together  at  a  period 
"  during  the  ensuing  year  and  when  that  convention 
''  meets  the  State  will  secede."  Governor  Means  also 
said  :  "  We  are  anxious  for  co-operation,  and  also  anx- 
"  ious  that  some  other  State  should  take  the  lead ;  but 
"  from  recent  developments  we  are  satisfied  that  South 
*'  Carolina  is  the  only  State  in  which  sufficient  unanim- 
"  ity  exists  to  commence  the  movement." 

The  Resistance  party  in  Mississippi  were  as  hesitating 
as  that  in  Alabama.  Col.  Maxey  Gregg,  writing  to 
General  Quitman  urged  him  to  hoist  the  banner  of  se- 
cession. He  said :  "  I  believe  that  if  the  resistance 
"  party  in  Mississippi  will  now  abandon  all  temporizing 
"  and  come  out  boldly  for  secession,  they  will  greatly  in- 
"  crease  the  chance  of  success  in  the  struggles  with  the 
"  submissionists.  But  if  they  flinch  from  the  issue  of 
"  disunion,  they  will  suffer  at  once  from  all  the  odium 
"  of  the  measures  of  South  Carohna  and  all  the  weak- 
"  ness  of  a  false  position.  Let  them  contend  manfully 
"  for  secession,  and,  even  if  beaten  in  the  elections,  they 
"  will  form  a  minority  so  powerful  in  moral  influence, 
^'  that  when  South  Carolina  secedes,  the  first  drop  of 
'*  blood  that  is  shed  will  cause  an  irresistible  popular 
**  impulse  in  their  favor,  and  the  submissionists  will  be 


THE  CRAtJLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.  29^ 

"crushed."  This  was  the  plan  finally  adopted  by 
South  Carolina  leaders.  This  was  the  plan  urged  by 
Quitman  in  Mississippi,  and  by  Yancey  in  Alabama. 
Neither  of  these  men  were  strategists,  nor  temporizers. 
They  put  no  value  on  victory  apart  from  principles ; 
they  preferred  defeat  to  equivocation ;  and  hence  it  was 
that  General  Quitman  after  calling  the  State  Convention 
in  Mississippi,  and  seeing  a  majority  of  Union  men  re- 
turned to  it,  retired  in  disgust  from  the  canvass;  and 
hence  it  was  that  Mr.  Yancey  not  satisfied  with  the 
half-way  movement  of  the  States-Rights  Convention  at 
Montgomery  made  an  issue  with  that  body  and  hoisted 
the  banner  of  separate  secession.  From  that  moment 
his  labor  was  to  gain-  over  to  his  views  the  different 
clubs,  then  to  press  his  views  upon  the  States-Rights 
party  in  county  meetings,  and  finally  to  imprint  them 
upon  the  Democratic  party  banner. 

Mr.  Watts,  although  a  believer  in  the  right  of  the 
State  to  secede  from  the  Union,  and  an  ardent  States- 
Rights  man,  was  opposed,  as  has  been  said,  to  the  policy 
of  secession,  and  was  a  most  efficient  leader  of  the  Union 
element.  He  vainly  endeavored  to  draw  from  the 
States-Rights  associations  an  admission  that  they 
favored  secession.  But  while  the  admission  was  want- 
ing, the  people  thoroughly  understood  that  an  unquali- 
fied admission  was  not  necessary  to  prove  their  design. 
However  much  the  one  or  the  other  party  might  evade 
or  shirk  the  issue,  the  contest  in  Alabama  in  1851  was 
undoubtedly  between  Union  and  Secession. 

In  a  controversy  such  as  this,  which  so  fearfully 
agitated  the  South,  it  was  not  possible  to  conceal  or 
keep  out  of  view  the  main  question,  whether  a  State  has 
a  right  to  secede  from  the  Union  peaceably.     That 


2^4  THE  CRADLE  OP  i?SE  CONFEbEftACY. 

question  necessarily  played  a  conspicuous  part  in  the 
discussions.     The  friends  of  the  compromise  in  the  Ala-' 
bama  Legislature  called  a  State  Union  Convention.     It 
met   January   19th,    1851,   at   Montgomery.     James 
E.  BiLSER,  a  prominent  lawyer  of  Montgomery  and  re- 
cently a  member   of  Congress,  was  made  President. 
Among  the  delegates  were  Thomas  B.  Cooper,  R.  M. 
Patton,  W.  M.  Byrd,  B.  S.  Bibb,  J.  M.  Tarleton,  W. 
B.  Moss,  James  H.  Clanton,  Lewis  E.  Parsons,  Robert 
J.  Jemison,  H.  W.  Hilliard,  R.  W.  Walker,  Thomas 
H.  Watts,  ^'ich.  Davis,  Jr.,  B.  M.  Woolsey,  C.  M. 
Wilcox,  and  W.  A.  Ashley.  This  Convention  accepted 
the  compromise  legislation.     They  went  further  and  de- 
nied the  right  of  secession.     They  resolved  that  when 
governments   become  too  grievous  to  be  borne  it  is  the 
right  and  duty  of  a  people  to  ''  boldly  defy  its  authority 
"  by  asserting   in   the  spirit   of  the  Revolution   their 
"  purpose  to  be  free  and  independent."     The  remedy 
here  set  forth  against  tyranny,  waa  clearly  intended  to 
present  an  issue  with  the  Secessionists.     That  remedy 
was  in  their  opinion  not  a  reserved  right  of  secession 
but  such  a  right  as  our  fathers  exercised  when  they 
threw  oif  the  yoke  of  Great  Britain,     'i'he  spirit  of  the 
Revolution  was  the  spirit  of  rebelHon — an  appeal  to 
arms  and  not  to  law.     To  leave  no  doubt  that  the  con- 
vention recognized  no  other  mode  of  redress  for  griev- 
ances except  that  set  forth  in  the  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence, they  resolved  further :    "  That  the  asserted 
"  right  of  secession  of  a  State  from  the  Union  is  un- 
"  authorized  by  the  Federal  Constitution."     Had  they 
stopped  here  their  declaration  would  have  been  point- 
less, for  no  one  contended  that  the  Federal  Constitution 
either  asserted  or  denied  the  right,  of  secession  ;    the 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.      295 

Secessionists  holding  that  the  right  was  reserved  to  the 
States  among  the  residuary  powers  not  granted  to  the 
Federal  Constitution.  But  the  resolution  continued  as 
follows  :  "  But  we  claim  it  as  a  paraniount  right  which 
**  belongs  to  every  free  people  to  overthrow  their  gov-- 
"  ernment  when  it  fails  to  answer  the  ends  for  which  it 
"  was  established."  There  can  be  no  dispute  as  to  the 
meaning  of  this  clause  of  the  resolution.  It  means  sim- 
ply such  revolution  as  our  fathers  waged  against 
Great  Britain — nothing  more  nor  less.  Had  the  Con- 
vention said  that  they  claim  it  as  a  paramount  right 
which  belongs  to  every  State  of  the  Union  to  overthrow 
the  government,  their  meaning  might  possibly  have  ad- 
mitted of  doubt,  although  the  act  of  secession  as  recog- 
nized by  the  States-Rights  men  could  not  properly  be 
spoken  of  as  an  overthrow  of  the  government,  being 
simply  a  letiring  from  a  government  which  would  still 
have  actual  force  and  effect  among  the  States  which 
remained  confederated.  But  the  claim  of  the  Conven- 
tion was  that  redress  of  tyranny  could  be  effected 
only  by  means  of  that  paramount  right  which  belongs 
to  every  free  people.  The  panimount  right  which  be- 
longs to  every  free  people  is  simply  the  right  of  rebel- 
lion— ^the  right  to  be  styled  patriot  if  successful  like 
Washington — the  right  to  be  called  traitor  if  unsuc- 
cessful like  William  Wallace  or  Kossuth,  Kosciusko 
or  Lopez. 

There  were  doubtless  individuals  in  the  Union  Con- 
vention like  Mr.  Watts  and  others,  educated  in  the  law 
school  of  the  University  of  Virginia,  who  recognized  the 
right  of  secession  as  claimed  by  Hayne  and  Calhoun. 
To  such  persons  it  must  have  appeared  that  an  abstract 
right  on  the  part  of  seceding  States,  which  the  noa- 


296      THE  CRADLE  OP  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

seceding  States  denied,  was  in  substance  nothing  but  the 
natural  right  of  revolution  which  every  people  possessed, 
and  over  which  it  was  needless  to  waste  words  or  raise 
an  issue. 

While  these  States-Rights  Whigs  remained  silent 
over  the  anti-secession  resolution,  the  vast  body  of  the 
Union  party,  Whigs  and  Democrats,  undoubtedly  en- 
dorsed the  resolution  in  its  plain  meaning  most  heartily. 
In  evidence  of  this  fact  it  is  well  to  notice  the  cotem- 
poraneous  expressions  of  leading  members  and  represen- 
tatives of  the  party. 

The  Whig  newspaper  at  Montgomery,  the  Journal, 
hoisted  at  the  head  of  its  columns  the  name  of  Benja- 
min, Glover  SnmDs  as  the  Union  candidate  ibr  Gov- 
ernor. Mr.  Shields  was  a  native  of  Abbeville,  South 
Carolina  ;  had  been  a  member  of  the  Alabama  General 
Assembly  several  years,  was  a  member  of  Congress  in 
1841,  and  Minister  to  Venezuela  under  Mr.  Polk. 
He  was  an  active  member  of  the  Democratic  party.  So 
devoted  and  unqualified  was  his  attachment  to  the 
Union  that  in  a  published  card  in  reply  to  those  who 
had  nominated  him  for  Governor,  he  said :  "  I  am  for 
"  this  Federal  Union  of  ours  under  all  circumstances 
"  and  at  all  hazards ;  right  or  wrong,  I  am  for  the 
"  Union."  * 

Not  so  unquaHfiedly,  but  with  equal  distinctness,  the 
several  Union  candidates  for  Congress  uttered  their  re- 
pudiation of  secession.  C.  C.  Langdon,  of  the  First 
District,  denied  the  right  of  secession.  James  Aber- 
CROMBiE,  of  the  Second  District,  denounced  the  proposed 
action  of  South  Carolina,  and  spoke  of  walling  her  in 
with  Federal  authority  in  the  event  of  secession,  and  of 
starving  her  to  death  on  rice.     Judge  Mudd,  of  the 


THE  CRADLE  OF  TtiE  CONFEDERACY.      29^ 

Third  District,  acknowledged  the  right  of  a  State  to 
secede,  but  at  the  same  time  admitted  the  right  of  the 
Federal  Government  to  enforce  its  laws  within  her  limits. 
W.  R.  Smith,  of  the  Fourth  District,  spoke  at  Tuska- 
loosa,  and  was  thus  reported  by  the  Monitor :  "  He 
"  denied  the  right  of  peaceable  secession  as  it  is  called, 
"  in  all  its  phases,  and  sustained  his  position  most  tri- 
"  umphantly."  The  Monitor  added  :  "  This  thing 
"  they  call  the  right  of  peaceable  secession  is  in  our 
"  view  too  preposterous  to  spend  words  about.  We 
"  acknowledge  no  such  right."  Williamson  R.  W. 
Cobb,  in  the  Fifth  District,  denied  the  right  of  secession 
in  toto.  George  S.  Houston,  in  the  Sixth  District, 
also  denied  the  right.  In  the  Seventh  District,  Alex- 
ander White  likewise  denied  the  right  of  a  State  to 
secede. 

In  the  County  of  Lauderdale,  one  of  the  richest'  of 
the  Tennessee  Valley,  a  number  of  questions  were  pro- 
pounded to  the  candidates  for  the  General  Assembly. 
Robert  M.  Patton,  one  of  the  candidates  for  the  Senate, 
and  afterwards  Governor  of  the  State,  rephed  to  the 
questions  in  these  words  : 

"  I  do  not  believe  that  any  State  has  the  Constitu- 
"  tional  or  reserved  right  to  secede  from  the  Union. 

^'  All  laws  passed  by  Congress  in  pursuance  of  the 
"  Constitution  are  the  supreme  laws  of  the  land  as  well 
"  in  a  State  attempting  secession  as  in  any  other  State. 
"  So  I  say  that  I  believe  that  the  President  of  the 
'^  United  States  has  the  Constitutional  right  to  execute 
"  all  the  laws  of  Congress  within  the  hmits  of  any 
*'*  seceding  State. 

"  My  matured  opinion  is  that  the  Legislature  of  Ala- 
"  bama  should  refuse  positively  to  give  countenance  to 


298      THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

"  any  State  attempting  to  resist  with  force  the  execution 
'•'  of  the  laws  of  Congress  within  her  Hmits ;  and  as  a 
"  loyal  citizen,  and  as  a  true  patriot,  I  hold  it  to  be  my 
"  duty  to  aid,  if  necessary,  the  supremacy  of  the  Con- 
^'  stitution  and  laws." 

So  answered  the  other  candidates,  Richard  W. 
Walker,  V.  M.  Benham,  and  S.  C.  Sheffield. 

The  Constitutional  Union  Club  of  Montgomery  had 
frequent  meetings,  at  which  prominent  citizens  delivered 
addresses.  At  one  of  these  meetings,  Thomas  J.  Judgb 
spoke,  denying  the  right  of  South  Carolina  to  secede, 
and  sustaining  the  right  of  the  Federal  Government  to 
enforce  its  laws  within  her  hmits  if  she  should  do  so. 
The  Advertiser  charged  Mr.  Judge  with  having  advo- 
cated the  right  of  coercion.  This  brought  out  a  com- 
munication from  him  in  which  he  said  :  "  I  contended 
"  that  if  she  seceded  I  would  not  be  in  favor  of  the 
"  General  Government  '  subjugating'  her,  •  or  making 
"  her  a  ^  subjugated  province,'  that  I  did  not  beheve 
"  the  General  Government  had  such  power,  nor  had  I 
"ever  heard  such  power  claimed;  but  I  insisted  it 
''  would  be  the  duty  of  the  General  Government  to  en- 
''  force  its  Constitution  and  laws  ;  that  the  Constitution 
"  and  laws  had  been  enforced  in  South  Carolina  ever 
"  since  she  had  been  a  member  of  the  Union,  and  if  that 
"  had  not  made  her  a  *  subjugated  province'  the  con- 
"  tinning  to  enforce  the  same  Constitution  and  laws 
"  would  not  make  her  so." 

So  clear  was  the  sentiment  of  the  Union  party  against 
the  right  of  secession  that  the  Advertiser  published  the 
following  summary  of  their  views  without  denial  from 
the  opposing  press  : 

"  As  deducible  from  their  party  presses,  their  great 


l^HE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.      290 

"  leaders  and  public  speakers  generally  in  this  city  and 
"  elsewhere,  they  deny  the  right  of  peaceable  secession 
"  by  a  sovereign  State.  In  case  a  sovereign  State  does 
"  secede  they  look  upon  it  as  rebellion  and  contend  for 
"  the  right  of  the  General  Government  to  coerce  and 
"  subjugate  her  ;  or,  )vhich  is  the  same  thing,  they  in- 
"  sist  that  the  General  'overnment  should  enforce  its 
"  laws  within  the  limits  of  the  seceding  State,  after  she 
'^  had  seceded ;  and  to  this  end  should  apply  whatever 
"  force  may  be  necessary  for  the  purpose.  They  de- 
"  fend  the  late  compromise  against  the  opposition  and 
''  resistance  of  the  States-Rights  men,  and  therefore  ap- 
"  prove  of  the  admission  of  California,  of  the  abolition  of 
"  the  slave  trade,  and  slavery  too  under  some  circum- 
"  stances  in  the  District  of  Columbia,  and  the  dismem- 
"  berment  of  Texas." 

Apart  from  the  unflxirness  of  saying  that  acquiescence 
in  the  compromise  was  equivalent  to  approval  of  all  its 
features,  this  summary  very  justly  expresses  the  views 
and  opinions  of  the  Union  party  of  1850-'51 — that 
party  which  in  the  subsequent  election  filled  the  Gen- 
eral Assembly  with  men,  who  unlike  those  of  Georgia, 
South  Carolina  and  Mississippi,  refused  to  call  a  State 
Convention,  a  party  which  forced  the  re-election  of  a 
Union  Governor,  returned  four  out  of  the  seven  Con- 
gressmen and  carried  the  popular  vote  by  a  large  majori- 
ty. So  strong  was  Alabama  fixed  in  the  Union  faith  that 
not  the  sound  of  a  (?annon  would  have  shaken  her  then 
from  her  moorings. 


CHAPTER    XII. 


The  Montgomery  District — Contest  of  States- Bights  and 
Union  Men  over  Yancey — The  Georgia  Platform — 
Yancey  Retires  and  Cochran  Takes  His  Place — Report 
of  the  Southern  Rights  Association — Defeat  of  the 
Yancey  Party — Scheme  to  Acquire  Cuba — Lopez  and 
Quitman — Federal  Arrest  of  a  Governor — Reorganiza- 
tion of  Parties— The  Southern  Whigs — The  Whig 
Convention  at  Baltimore — R^ly  of  Scott  and  Pierce  to 
the  States- Rights  Associations^  Mc,  Etc. 


"But  the  indissoluble  link  of  Union  between  the  people  of  the 
several  States  of  this  confederated  nation  is,  after  all,  not  in  the  right, 
but  in  the  heart.  If  the  day  should  ever  come  (may  Heaven  avert  it !) 
when  the  affections  of  the  people  of  these  States  shall  be  alienated  from 
each  other,  when  the  fraternal  spirit  shall  give  way  to  cold  indifference 
or  collisions  of  interest  shall  fester  into  hatred,  the  bands  of  political  as- 
sociation will  not  long  hold  together  parties  no  longer  attracted  by  the 
magnetism  of  conciliated  interests  and  kindly  sympathies ;  and  far  bet- 
ter will  it  be  for  the  people  of  the  disunited  States  to  part  in  friendship 
from  each  other,  than  to  be  held  together  by  constraint." 

Address  of  J.  Q,.  Adams  before  the  N.  Y.  Hist.  Soc,  1839. 


The  Montgomery  Congressional  District,  composed 
of  some  of  the  largest  slave  counties  of  the  State,  in- 
habited by  descendents  of  Georgians,  Virginians  and 
Carolinians,  occupied  a  most  prominent  position  in  the 
politics  of  Alabama.  It  was  nearly  divided  between 
the  two  great  political  parties.  Containing  the  capitol, 
it  enjoyed  a  legal  bar  equal  to  that  of  any  other  por- 
tion of  the  State ;  and  her  mass  meetings  were  thero- 
fore  frequently  addressed  by  the  ablest  men  of  the 
State.  At  that  time  Montgomery  was  upon  the  most 
direct  highway  from  New  Orleans  to  New  York.  The 
energy  and  intellect  of  the  whole  country  became 


302      THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

familiar  with  her  people,  and  aided  to  impart  to  them 
that  intelligence  and  independence  of  character  which  is 
the  result  to  so  large  a  degree  of  contact  with  the  world. 
This  district  had  been  ably  represented  in  Congress  for 
a  number  of  years.  Dixon  H.  Lewis  had  won  for  him- 
self a  national  reputation.  Henry  W.  Hilliard  was 
also  well  known  throughout  the  Union.  William  L. 
Yancey  had  also  made  for  himself  a  national  reputa- 
tion. These  gentlemen,  better  known,  were  not  how- 
ever superior  in  point  of  character  and  ability  to  many 
others  who  had  not  yet  played  a  part  upon  the  national 
arena.  With  the  States-Rights  men  it  was  a  matter 
not  only  of  ambition,  but  almost  of  necessity  to  wrest 
this  district  from  the  hands  of  the  Whigs,  who  had 
held  it  but  by  an  uncertain  tenure  for  some  years.  On 
the  other  hand  it  was  a  matter  of  pride  for  the  Whigs  to 
continue  to  hold  it,  and  for  the  Union  man  to  defeat  at 
his  own  door  the  plan  of  Mr.  Yancey  for  precipitating 
secession. 

In  April,  1851,  the  District  Convention  of  the 
Southern  Rights  party  met  at  Clayton  and  nominated 
Mr  Yancey  for  Congress.  In  May,  a  Union  Convention 
met  at  the  same  place  and  nominated  James  Abercrom- 
BiE.  The  resolutions  of  this  latter  convention  presented 
an  earnest  ^'  appeal  to  all  quiet  and  law-abiding  citizens 
"  to  aid  with  their  influence  and  votes  in  arresting  the 
"  wild  and  fiery  spirit  of  disunion."  The  Convention 
also  adopted  the  Georgia  Platform,  which  accepted  the 
compromise  measures  as  a  permanent  adjustment  of 
sectional  controversy.  That  platform  after  accepting 
the  compromise  measures  provided  that  the  South 
should,  even  to  a  disruption  of  the  Union,  resist  certain 
measures  if  attempted  by  Congress.     The  measures  to 


THE  CEADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.      303 

be  resisted  were  these:  Abolition  by  Congress  of 
slavery  in  the  district  without  the  consent  of  the 
owners ;  abolition  of  slavery  at  places  owned  by  the 
United  States  in  the  slave  States ;  suppression  of  slave 
trade  between  the  States ;  refusal  to  admit  as  a  State 
any  territory  applying  for  admission  because  of  the  ex- 
istence of  slavery  therein  ;  any  act  prohibiting  the  in- 
troduction of  slaves  into  the  territories  of  Utah  and  New 
Mexico ;  any  act  repealing  or  materially  modifying 
the  fugitive  slave  law.  This  enumeration  of  acts  of 
Congress  which  would  justify  resistance  does  not  in- 
clude an  act  of  Congress  prohibiting  the  introduction  of 
slavery  into  other  territory  than  that  acquired  from 
Mexico.  The  reason  for  this  omission  may  be  found  in 
the  fact  that  the  compromise  measures  of  1850  were 
held  to  deal  only  with  the  Mexican  territory.  The 
Missouri  Compromise  dealt  only  with  the  territory  ac- 
quired with  Louisiana.  The  latter  act  was  held  by  the 
Whigs  generally  not  to  have  been  repealed  by  the 
former.  They  argued  that  it  did  not  follow,  because  a 
part  of  the  Mexican  acquisition  extended  above  36  de- 
grees 30  minutes,  and  any  part  even  above  that  line, 
might  come  into  the  Union  with  slavery,  therefore  an 
act  forbidding  slavery  above  36  degrees  30  minutes  in 
the  Louisiana  acquisition  was  null  and  void.  The 
Georgia  platform  therefore,  holding  to  the  compromise 
of  1850  as  a  final  adjustment  declared  that  the  exclusion 
by  Congress  of  slavery  from  any  of  the  Mexican  ac- 
quisition justified  resistance,  and  was  silent  as  to  a  simi- 
lar exclusion  from  other  territory.  In  the  opinion  of 
the  friends  of  that  platform  the  whole  question  of  slave- 
ry in  the  territories  was  settled  so  far  as  the  Mexican 
territory  was  concerned  by  the  compromise  of  1860  3  and 


304      THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

SO  far  as  the  rest  of  the  territories  was  concerned,  by 
the  Missouri  Compromise.  If  this  had  not  been  their 
opinion  they  would  have  announced  in  their  platform 
that  the  prohibition  by  Congress  of  the  introduction  of 
slaves  into  any  of  the  territories  would  justify  re- 
sistance. 

The  Union  Convention  of  the  Montgomery  District, 
adopting  the  Georgia  platform,  held  that  the  Missouri 
Compromise  was  not  repealed  by  the  compromise  of 
1850.^  Mr.  Stephens,  in  his  "History  of  the  United 
States  for  schools,"  says  that  the  compromise  for  1850 
established  the  principle  of  non-intervention  for  all  the 
territories  in  lieu  of  the  Missouri  Compromise.  As  he 
was  one  of  the  committee  who  drafted  the  Georgia  plat- 
form it  is  strange  that  he  provided  for  resistance  as  to 
Utah  and  New  Mexico,  and  not  as  to  other  territory. 
The  argument  set  forth  at  a  much  later  day  than  1850 
that  the  Missouri  restriction  was  removed  by  the  adop- 
tion of  the  new  compromise  which  omitted  such  a  re- 
striction in  the  case  of  ^'^  newly  acquired  territory  (a 
restriction  to  which  the  first  compromise,  of  course,  could 
not  apply),  did  not  meet  the  approval  of  the  Whigs  and 
Union  Democrats  of  1851.  They  held  that  in  these 
compromises  there  was  no  question  of  principle ;  and 
that  the  Missouri  restriction  over  territory  of  the  Louis- 
iana purchase  was  no  more  inconsistent  with  non-restric- 
tion over  territory  of  the  Mexican  purchase,  than  re- 
striction above  the  line  of  36  degrees,  30  minutes,  was 
inconsistent  with  non-restriction  below  the  line. 

Immediately  following  the  Union  Convention,  the 
Southern  Rights  Association  met  at  iV\ontgomery  and 
was  addressed  by  Mr.  Yancey  in  one  of  his  brilHant  and 
captivating  speeches.     He  declared  that  the  only  issue 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDEEACY.      305 

before  the  people  was  secession,  and  that  he  would  make 
no  false  issue ;  that  his  principles  were  founded  on  the 
Constitution  and  must  ultimately  prevail ;  that  he  wore 
them  as  a  frontlet  between  his  eyes  that  all  the  world 
might  see  them.  He  thereupon  proposed  a  series  of 
resolutions  urging  separate  secession.  He  stated  that 
he  had  private  advices  to  the  eflect  that  South  Carolina 
would  secede  the  next  spring ;  that  she  had  one  hun- 
dred pieces  of  artillery  ready,  more  than  twenty 
thousand  small  arms,  and  a  large  quantity  of  military 
stores.  Mr.  Yancey  declined  the  nomination  for  Con- 
gress. He  fully  understood  that  the  people  were  not 
ready  for  his  extreme  movement,  and  hence  determined 
not  to  let  defeat  dim  the  lustre  of  his  shield.  In  his 
letter  declining  the  nomination  he  said  that  there  were 
but  two  parties,  the  Secession  party  and  the  Submission 
party.  Rehearsing  the  perils  of  the  South  and  the 
difficulty  of  co-operation,  he  closed  by  saying  "  In  this 
"  view  1  am  decidedly  in  favor  of  preparing  the  State 
"  by  all  proper  means  for  exerting  the  right  of 
"  secession." 

In  marked  contrast  with  Mr.  Yancey's  letter  was  that 
of  Mr.  Abercrombie  accepting  the  Union  nomination. 
He  stood  by  the  measures  of  1850,  and  planted  him- 
self firmly  on  the  Georgia  platform.  He  would  battle 
for  the  Union,  with  the  slavery  'question  settled  as  to 
the  territories  and  not  to  be  disturbed,  but  he  would  not 
submit  to  further  encroachments  at  the  hands  of  the 
North. 

John  Cochran,  of  Eufaula,  a  lawyer  of  great  ability, 
was  nominated  in  place  of  Mr.  Yancey.  This  gentle- 
man after  the  passage  of  the  compromise  measures  had 
written  a  letter  to  Mr.  Ritchie,  editor  of  the  Washington 


306      THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

Union,  in  which  he  said  that  "  they  perfect  the  degra- 
"  dation  of  the  South  in  the  Union,  and  nothing  can 
"  redeem  her  but  secession.''  Further  on,  he  said  : 
"  I  pray  God  that  the  South  may  tear  herself  from  the 
"  power  of  the  monster  which  does  not  conceal  its  pur- 
"pose.  I  do  not  think  the  Union  will  be  dissolved 
"  immediately,  but  I  believe,  and  rejoice  in  the  belief, 
"  that  at  this  moment  there  is  amongst  us  here  a  leaven 
"  of  disunion,  which  by  a  more  or  less  rapid,  but  per- 
"  ceptibly  certain,  process  will  leaven  the  whole  lump. 
"  We  feel  that  in  the  confederacy  we  are  degraded,  and 
"  have  now  no  remedy  but  secession."  The  author  of 
these  sentiments  was  sustained  in  the  canvass  by  Mr. 
Yancp]y,  the  States-Rights  associations,  and  by  almost 
th'o  entire  Democratic  party.  On  the  other  hand  Mr. 
Abercrombie  was  sustained  by  Mr.  Hilliard,  the  entire 
Whig  party,  and  a  few  hundred  Union  Democrats.  It 
may  be  said  that  the  contest  in  this  district  was  one 
between  the  Whig  party  as  representing  submission  to 
the  Compromise  Acts,  and  the  Democratic  party  as  rep- 
resenting secession  from  the  Union. 

Mr.  Cochran  was  a  member  of  the  Southern  Rights 
Association  of  Eufaula.  That  association  had  adopted 
a  report  on  "Southern  wrongs  and  remedies"  made 
by  the  chairman  of  a  committee,  James  L.  Pugh,  Esq., 
afterward  member  of  Congress,  which  set  forth  the  views 
of  the  States-Rights  party  upon  the  questions  at  issue 
and  left  no  doubt  as  to  the  position  held  by  Mr. 
Cochran. 

I.  The  report  reviewed  the  compromise  measures  at 
length.  It  declared  that  the  admission  of  California, 
without  the  formality  of  a  preceding  territorial  enabling 
fjLct,  was  an  outrage  on  the  South  because  half  of  the 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.      307 

State  lay  south  of  36  degrees  30  minutes,  and  the  peo- 
ple of  the  South  should  have  been  given  time  in  which 
to  introduce  their  slaves  and  compete  for  the  plan  of  the 
constitution.  It  declared  that,  by  a  convention  of  the 
Southern  States  making  the  demand,  "  California  may 
"  yet  be  divided,  and  the  Southern  people  allowed  an 
"  opportunity  of  establishing  therein  the  institution  of 
"  slavery." 

To  this  declaration,  it  was  replied  that  California  was 
properly  admitted  ;  that  the  Constitution  gave  Congress 
the  power  to  admit  new  States  and  was  silent  as  to  the 
manner  of  admission.  The  mode  and  manner  were  left 
entirely  to  the  discretion  of  Congress.  While  injustice 
was  shown  the  South  in  the  haste  with  which  that  State 
was  admitted  without  an  enablins;  act ;  no  practical  nor 
constitutional  injustice  was  done  his  people.  There  was 
no  probabihty  of  slavery  being  carried  to  California,  if 
she  remained  a  territory  for  ten  years.  The  rapid 
influx  of  a  mining  population  from  all  over  the  world, 
hostile  to  slavery,  made  it  necessary  that  a  State  gov- 
ernment should  be  speedily  formed,  and  rendered  it  im- 
possible for  the  institution  of  slavery  to  have  more  than 
a  handful  of  supporters.  The  fact  that  half  of  Califor- 
nia lay  south  of  36  degrees  30  minutes  did  not  give 
the  South  any  more  rights  in  the  southern  portion  than 
in  the  northern.  The  Missouri  Compromise  line  did 
not  apply  to  the  Mexican  acquisition ;  and  if  it  had  ap- 
plied thereto,  it  would  simply  have  excluded  slavery 
north  of  86  degrees  30  minutes,  and  left  the  people 
south  of  that  line  to  exclude  it  or  not  as  they  might 
see  proper.  The  people  of  California  had  seen  proper 
to  exclude  slavery,  and  the  Union  party  was  read|^  to 
vindicate  the  right  of  that  people  to  have  slaves  or  not 


308      THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

as  they  saw  proper.  It  was  contended  that  such  de- 
mands as  this  for  the  division  of  California,  after  she 
had  been  admitted  as  a  State,  when  it  was  certain  that 
slavery  could  by  no  possibility  be  voted  into  any  one 
of  the  proposed  divisions,  tended  to  damage  the  South 
by  putting  her  in  a  false  position.  By  preferring  un- 
reasonable demands  she  would  not  be  listened  to  with 
respect  and  consideration  when  her  demands  were  just 
and  proper.  They  were  ready  to  be  aggressive  at  all 
times  when  the  power  of  the  people  was  illegally  shorn 
away,  but  they  were  not  wilhng  to  be  aggressive  simply 
for  the  purpose  of  preserving  what  was  called  a  balance 
of  power  in  the  United  States  Senate  between  the  free 
and  slave  States.  If  a  State  wished  to  be  a  free  State 
it  had  a  right  to  be  so,  whether  the  so-called  balance  of 
powin"  was  affected  or  not.  They  had  no  fault  to  find 
with  the  two  Senators  from  Alabama  for  voting  against 
the  admission  of  California,  since  a  delay  in  her  admis- 
sion might  have  developed  a  fairer  and  fiiUer  expression 
of  the  opinion  of  her  people;  they  were  to  be  com- 
mended for  refusing  to  join  in  the  protest  made  by  the 
ten  Southern  Senators,  ^renators  Clemens  and  King 
deserved  the  thanks  of  the  State  for  refusing  to  sign  a 
paper  protesting  against  the  admission  of  a  State  and 
threatening  dissolution  of  the  Union  because  of  such 
admission,  simply  because  half  of  it  was  not  made  a 
slave  State  without  regard  to  the  wish  of  the  people. 

II.  The  Southern  Rights  report  objected  to  the  com- 
promise, in  the  next  place,  because  Congress  had  not 
repealed  the  local  law  which  abolished  slavery  in  Utah 
and  New  Mexico  when  they  were  a  part  of  Mexico. 
"  Now,"  we  ask,  say  th6  committee  in  their  report, 
"  if  the  refusal  to  repeal  the  Mexican  law,  upon  the 


tHE  CRADLE  Oli'  TSE  CONFEDERACY.      309 

"  ground  stated,  does  not  indicate  the  same  hostility  by 
"  the  Federal  Government  to  the  institution  of  slavery 
"  as  the  passage  directly  of  the  Wilmot  Proviso.  Since 
"  the  passage  of  the  great  '  peace  measures,'  and  in  the 
"  midst  of  the  '  patriotic  rejoicings '  over  the  prostra- 
"  tion  of  Southern  rights  and  honor,  insult  has  been 
"  added  to  injury  by  the  introduction  of  bills  to  apply 
"  this  odious  Proviso  to  the  territories  of  Utah  and 
"  New  Mexico.  Then,  what  security  is  there  in  carry- 
"  ing  slaves  to  these  temtories  ?  "  To  these  questions 
it  was  replied  that  the  compromise  acts,  so  far  as  the 
territories  acquired  from  Mexico  were  concerned,  did 
ample  justice  to  the  South.  They  might  come  into 
the  Union  with  or  without  slavery.  So  the  act  provided  ; 
and  not  even  the  Missouri  restriction  had  been  applied 
to  them.  The  local  law  of  Mexico  no  longer  existed. 
The  constitution,  and  the  rules  and  regulations  made 
by  Congress  for  the  territories,  had  abrogated  it ;  and 
the  slave  owner  could  take  his  property  to  New  Mexico 
just  as  he  could  take  it  to  Missouri  and  Arkansas  be- 
fore their  admission  as  States.  To  say  that  th6  Union 
should  be  dissolved  because  the  Wilmot  Proviso  could 
be  made  to  apply  to  a  territory  at  some  future  day,  was 
to  anticipate  ills  which  might  never  happen.  There 
was  always  risk  in  taking  slaves  to  a  territory,  because, 
on  the  formation  of  a  State  constitution,  slavery  might 
be  abolished ;  but  that  was  a  risk  attendant  on  the  na- 
ture of  the  property.  The  Wilmot  Proviso  had  been 
invariably  defeated ;  and  now,  if  the  people  of  the  South 
showed  a  determination  to  stand  by  the  compromise 
measures  as  a  final  settlement  of  the  slavery  question, 
we  need  have  no  apprehension  that  the  Wilmot  Proviso 
will  gain  the  victory  in  Congress.     There  will  always 


310  TfiE  CRADLE  OF  THE  ODNEEDERACY. 

be  agitators  and  fanatics  who  will  press  it  forward,  but 
the  conservative  sentiment  of  the  whole  country  will 
always  defeat  it.  Let  us  not  then  rush  into  disunion 
because  of  apprehensions  which  have  no  solid  basis. 

III.  The  report  objected  to  the  settlement  of  the 
Texas  boundary  question,  under  which  a  portion  of 
Texas  was  added  to  New  .  exico  in  consideration  of 
ten  millions  of  dollars  to  be  paid  Texas  by  the  United 
States.  The  objection  was  that  enough  territory  was 
taken  from  a  slave  State  to  form  two  States  thereafter, 
and  that  these  two  States  might  be  brought  into  the 
Union  under  the  operation  of  the  Wilmot  Proviso.  To 
this  it  was  replied  that  there  were  grave  doubts  as  to 
whether  the  territory  in  question  properly  belonged  to 
Texas,  but  that  if  Texas  chose  to  part  with  it  for  ten 
millions  of  dollars,  there  certainly  could  be  no  objection 
raised  by  any  one  else  ;  and  that  so  far  as  the  danger 
of  having  the  Wilmot  Proviso,  applied  to  that  section 
was  involved,  the  same  proviso  could,  by  the  same 
power,  be  applied  to  the  identical  territory  were  it  to 
remain  a  part  of  Texas,  and  at  some  future  day,  by  the 
permission  of  that  State,  apply  for  admission  to  the 
Union.  If  the  provisions  of  the  New  Mexican  act 
were  to  be  invalidated  hereafter  by  application  of^the 
Wilmot  Proviso,  the  provisions  of  the  act  admitting 
Texas  could  be  as  easily  invalidated.  This  objection 
then  must  fall  to  the  ground.  It  was  simply  a  general 
objection  that  the  people  of  the  North  would  not  unite 
with  those  of  the  South  in  standing  by  Clay,  Webster, 
Fillmore,  and  Cass,  and  their  compeers,  in  abiding  by 
the  compromise.  Let  us  see  whether  they  would  not, 
before  we  prefer  extravagant  demands,  however  just 
and   constitutional,  and    before   we   declare   ourselves 


THE  CRADLE  OlP  THE  CONFEDERACY.  311 

ready  for  disunion,  and  even  before  we  know  whether 
our  demands  are  accepted  or  rejected.  •  The  Union  men 
were  opposed  to  this  constant  drawing  of  heavy  drafts 
on  the  patriotism  of  the  great  conservative  masses  of 
the  North.  Those  masses  were  disposed  to  give  us  all 
our  rights  under  the  Constitution,  but  they  were  op- 
posed to  slavery,  and  we  must  not  expect  them  to  legis- 
late with  a  view  of  preserving  what  we  call  a  balance  of 
power. 

IV.  The  report  next  objected  to  the  abolition  of  the 
slave  trade  in  the  District  of  Columbia.  *  If  Congress 
"  has  a  right  to  say  that  a  slave  shall  be  free  when 
"  brought  into  the  District  for  sale,  it  can  also  say  that 
"  he  shall  be  free  when  brought  there  to  labor."  To 
this  it  was  replied  that  Congress  undoubtedly  had  the 
right  not  only  to  stop  the  slave  trade  in  the  District, 
but  even  to  abolish  it  there.  It  was  thought  that  the 
latter  step  should  not  be  taken  except  upon  a  vote  of 
the  people  of  the  District ;  but  so  far  as  the  prohibition 
of  the  slave  markets  in  the  District  was  concerned  the 
Union  men  were  willing  to  yield  so  much  at  the  seat  of 
Government  to  the  prejudices  of  that  large  portion  of 
mankind  who  were  sensitive  as  to  the  slave  trade.  It 
was  not  necessary  to  keep  up  a  slave  auction  under  the 
very  windows  of  the  Capitol.  If  any  one  in  the  Dis- 
trict desired  to  purchase  a  slave  he  could  do  so  in 
ten  or  twenty  minutes  by  crossing  the  river.  The 
continuance  of  the  slave  auctions  in  the  District  did 
more  than  all  else  to  keep  up  the  agitation  against 
slavery  at  the  North.  It  might  be  well  for  the  South 
that  they  were  discontinued. 

Y.  In  conclusion  the  report  declared  that  the  South 
should  meet  in  convention  and  demand  that  California 


312      THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONPEDERACY. 

be  divided,  and  the  southern  portion  be  allowed  to  estab- 
lish slavery.  If  the  north  should  not  acquiesce,  then 
the  South  should  make  immediate  preparations  to 
secede.  "  Discard  all  past  political  differences" — 
^'  Turn  aside  from  the  Submissionist  as  your  worst 
"  enemy" — *'  Starve  out  the  National  Submission  press 
"at  the  South" — "Exclude  all  Northern  newspapers 
"  from  our  midst"  — "  Patronize  Southern  Ministers  and 
"  Churches"  —  "  Cease  visiting  Northern  watering 
"  places" — were  among  the  suggestions  of  the  States- 
Rights  proniAiciamento. 

To  the  general  argument  that  the  South  would  be 
shorn  of  her  rights  in  the  Union,  it  was  answered  that 
the  only  protection  for  slaveiy  was  in  the  Union ;  that 
the  South  could  not  expect  the  people  of  the  North  to 
vote  slavery  into  the  territories  or  aid  in  making  con- 
stitutions recognizing  slavery;  that  all  efforts  to  con- 
tinue to  bring  in  a  slave  State  whenever  a  free  State 
was  introduced  must  in  the  end  prove  futile  ;  that  the 
South  had  neither  the  population  nor  the  slaves  to 
spread  over  vast  territories.  The  question  was  simply 
reduced  to  this  :  Shall  Alabama  secede  from  the  Union 
because  possibly  after  a  series  of  years  three-fourths 
of  the  States  may  be  free  States  and  may  amend  the 
Constitution  so  as  to  abolish  slavery?  That  event 
may  happen.  If  it  should,  it  would  be  a  Constitutional 
proceeding.  But  certainly  there  wauld  be  no  emanci- 
pation without  compensation  to  masters.  The  alterna- 
tive then  arises:  Is  it  better  for  Alabama  to  await 
gradual  emancipation  at  some  far  distant  day  under  a 
compensatory  system,  than  to  break  up  the .  Union, 
rush  into  civil  war,  and  lose  in  disaster  all  that  we  are 
contending  for?     Most  of  the  Alabama  Unionists  did 


tftE  ORADLE  OF  THE  CONPEDERACY.      31^  . 

not  believe  in  peaceable  secession.  No  government 
in  the  world  had  ever  broken  to  pieces,  except  with  civil 
war.  They  would  not  stop  to  argue  the  question  of 
secession.  That  was  a  question  they  never  argued. 
If  the  right  of  peaceable  secession  existed,  it  was  no 
peaceable  right  if  denied  by  the  other  side.  All  the 
North  denied  it  to  be  a  right.  All  the  border  States 
denied  it.  Even  Virginia  had  held  that  the  Supreme 
Court  was  the  common  arbiter  between  the  States  and 
the  General  Government.  A  large  and  perhaps  con- 
trolling portion  of  the  South  denied  the  right  at  heart. 
If  they  were  willing  to  break  up  the  Union,  they  would 
go  into  the  movement  with  the  expectation  of  doing 
what  our  grandfathers  did  at  Lexington  and  not  of 
reading  the  resolutions  of  1798  at  the  mouth  of  a  can- 
non. The  right  of  peaceable  secession  was  being  urged 
by  Mr.  Yancey  they  said  for  the  purpose  of  deluding  the 
people  into  the  belief  that  there  would  be  no  war  in  case 
of  disunion.  By  removing  the  idea  of  danger  it  is 
hoped  that  converts  may  be  more  rapidly  made.  Let 
not  the  people  be  blinded  to  the  truth !  There  can  be 
no  vsuch  thing  as  peaceable  disunion.  When  secession 
is  once  entered  upon,  the  country  will  be  deluged  in 
blood.  If  we  win  we  will  be  called  patriots.  If  we  lose  we 
will  be  called  traitors.  That  is  the  sum  and  substance 
of  the  right  of  peaceable  secession.  It  is  nothing  more 
than  the  natural  right  of  revolution,  which  all  would  be 
ready  to  assert  when  our  grievances  were  too  great  to 
be  borne.  At  present  they  did  not  beheve  our  griev- 
ances were  so  serious  as  to  justify  secession.  They 
had  watched  with  alarm  the  growing  spirit  of  hostility 
to  the  South  and  her  rights — but  were  satisfied  that 
the  conservative  element  of  the  country  would  always 


314      THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERaOY. 

rally  to  oar  defence  in  an  emergency,  as  it  had  done  in 
the  recent  adjustment.  That  compromise  was  not  all 
they  wished,  but  it  was  more  than  they  expected. 
They  were  calling  to  stand  by  it  as  a  final  settlement 
of  the  slavery  dispute  between  the  North  and  the  South. 

The  contest  between  Cochran  and  Abercrombie 
raged  bitterly  throughout  the  District,  but  at  the  elec- 
tion, Abercrombie  was  returned  with  an  unprecedented 
majority.  From  one  end  of  the  State  to  the  other,  and 
in  the  largest  slave-holding  counties,  the  advocates  of 
secession  were  routed  horse,  foot,  and  dragoons.  Mr. 
Yancey  was  mortified  to  see  the  Gulf  States  ratifying 
the  compromise  and  denouncing  disunion — the  very 
strongholds  of  the  secession  party  giving  unusual  large 
majorities  for  the  Union  candidates — and  even  South 
CaroHna  failing  to  give  the  requisite  vote  for  secession. 

The  acquisition  of  Texas  was  undoubtedly  a  move- 
ment by  Southern  leaders  for  the  purpose  of  preserving 
the  balance  between  the  slave  and  fi:ee  States.  But 
the  Mexican  war  had  accomplished  more  than  they 
intended.  It  had  given  Texas  to  the  South  ;  but  it 
had  also  given  California  and  Utah,  and  possibly  New 
Mexico,  to  the  North.  All  of  the  five  States  into 
which  Texas  was  expected  to  be  divided  eventually, 
might  or  might  not  be  admitted  as  slave  States  ;  all  the 
other  larger  territory  was  almost  certain  to  become 
free  States.  The  balance  of  power  must  be  secured  in 
some  other  way.  The  Southern  leaders  cast  their  eyes 
on  Cuba.  Narcisso  Lopez,  a  native  of  Venezuela,  a 
veteran  soldier  of  Spain,  and  for  some  years  a  r^^sident 
of  Cuba,  visited  the  United  States  in  1849  for  the  pur- 
pose of  enlisting  sympathy  in  behalf  of  Cuban  inde- 
pendence, and  of  organizing  a  military  expedition  for 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.      315 

the  invasion  of  that  'sland.  On  his  arrival  at  Wash- 
ington, Mr.  Calhoun  called  upon  him,  and  upon  the 
following  day  repeated  his  visit.  The  policy  which 
had  urged  the  distinguished  South  Carolinian  to  secure 
Texas  to  the  South,  now  urged  him  to  secure  Cuba. 
If  the  South  remained  in  the  Union  the  accession  of 
Cuba  would  give  several  more  slave  States.  If  the 
South  seceded,  the  possession  of  the  island  would  add 
greatly  to  the  resources  of  a  Southern  Confederacy. 
In  either  event,  therefore,  it  became  the  policy  of  the 
■South  to  aid  and  encourage  the  attempt  of  Lopez.  The 
leading  States-Rights  men  immediately  enlisted  them- 
selves in  the  enterprise.  Lopez  visited  Gen.  Quitman, 
and  proposed  that  they  divide  the  civil  and  military 
leadership  of  the  enterprise  between  them.  Lopez  was 
to  be  President  of  Cuba,  and  Quitman  was  to  be 
Commanding  General  in  the  field.  Had  the  offer  been 
accepted,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  an  immense  force 
would  have  rallied  to  the  call  of  Q  jitman.  The  soldiers 
of  his  old  Division  were  scattered  from  Charleston  to 
New  Orleans.  Each  one  of  them  would  have  become 
a  recruiting  officer ;  for  the  name  of  their  old  leader 
would  give  confidence  and  dignity  to  an  enterprise 
which,  under  the  lead  of  a  stranger,  would  be  open  to 
suspicion  and  distrust.  Quitman  was  then  Governor  of 
Mississippi.  He  was  ardently  in  favor  of  secession,  and 
fully  expected  that  disunion  would  occur  during  his 
administration.  A  State  convention  had  been  called, 
and  he  could  not  find  it  consistent  with  his  duty  to  lead 
a  military  movement,  however  promising  of  glory  and 
renown,  against  a  foreign  people,  when  his  services  as 
a  leader  were    now   demanded  by  the   States-Rights 


316      THE  OEADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

party  in  a  movement  at  home  whicli  promised  no  less 
renown  and  military  glory. 

Soon  after  the  decision  of  Gen.  Quitman,  Lopez 
embarked  for  Cuba  with  a  small  volunteer  force  under 
O'Hara,  Wheat,  Pickett,  Hawkins  and  Bell.  His  men 
were  chiefly  from  Kentucky.  Landing  at  Cardenas, 
he  repulsed  an  attacking  force  of  Spanish  troops,  but 
meeting  no  encouragement  from  the  people,  re-em- 
barked intending  to  make  another  landing.  The 
Spanish  steamer  Pizarro  giving  him  chase,  he  was 
compelled  to  run  into  Key  West,  where  his  force  was  * 
disbanded.  •  Not  disheartened  by  his  first  failure,  he 
proceeded  to  effect  a  new  organization,  visiting  New 
Orleans  and  several  places  in  Mississippi.  Everywhere 
he  was  received  with  enthusiasm.  At  Gainesville, 
Miss.,  he  spoke  to  a  large  meeting,  and  with  singular 
address  aroused  a  warlike  feeling.  Though  born  in 
another  land,  and  speaking  a  different  language,  he  was 
not  ignorant,  he  said,  of  the  history  of  Mississippi. 
He  knew  what  she  had  achieved  in  18L5  on  the  plains 
of  Chalmette,  where  the  gallant  Hinds  at  the  head  of 
her  dragoons  braved  the  fire  of  the  whole  British  Hne, 
and  became  the  pride  of  one  army. and  the  admiration 
of  another.  He  remembered  the  deadly  execution  of 
her  rifles  at  the  storming  of  Monterey  -  the  flashing 
sword  of  Davis  on  the  field  of  Buena  Vista — her  battle- 
riven  banner  when  it  was  planted  on  the  walls  of  Mexico 
by  the  heroic  Quitman.  With  these  memories  of 
brilliant  events,  he  came  from  a  kindred  and  friendly 
State — from  noble-hearted  Louisiana — to  breathe  for  a 
few  days  the  pure  air  of  your  forests  and  to  tread  a 
soil  consecrated  to  Liberty.  He  desired  to  know  and 
to  mingle  with  his  brother,  republicans,  anxious  to  see 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.      317 

and  to  study  their  practical  exemplifications  of  free 
government,  and  to  witness  the  phenomenon  of  a  whole 
people  engaged  in  trade,  agriculture  and  mechanics, 
comprehending  and  practicing  the  political  problems 
that  Europe,  with  all  its  philosophy,  refinement  and 
learning  has  never  been  able  to  solve. 

The  compromise  measures  had  passed,  and  the 
prospect  for  Southern  secession  was  less  favorable  than 
ever.  At  least  Quitman  believed  so,  and  thinking  that 
his  sword  would  not  be  demanded  by  his  own  State, 
he  now  inclined  more  favorably  towards  the  proposi- 
tion of  Lopez  It  was  generally  believed  that  he  would 
head  the  Cuban  movement.  The  Grand  Jury  of  the 
United  States  Court  at  New  Orleans  found  a  bill  against 
Gen.  Quitman,  John  Henderson,  and  others,  for  setting 
on  foot  the  invasion  of  Cuba.  The  question  arose, 
could  the  Governor  of  a  sovereign  State  be  carried 
away  to  another  State  by  the  General  Government  to 
answer  a  criminal  charge  ?  General  Quitman  was  dis- 
posed to  resist  the  attempt.  If  such  a  power  rested 
with  the  General  Government,  the  sovereignty  of  the 
State  was  gone.  At  any  moment  her  officers  might 
be  abducted  and  the  wheels  of  government  either 
stopped  or  left  in  the  hands  of  subordinates,  who  might 
be  the  tools  of  the  arresting  power.  Suppose  a  case  in 
which  the  Governor,  elected  by  the  people,  was  opposed 
to  the  party  in  power  at  Washington,  and  the  Lieut. 
Governor,  elected  by  the  Senate,  was  friendly  to  that 
party,  and  to  any  schemes  which  it  might  favor,  the 
arrest  and  abduction  of  the  Governor  on  any  pretended 
charge,  would  defeat  the  will  and  safety  of  the  people. 
Suppose  a  new-elected  General  Assembly  about  to 
convene,  should  be  almost  divided  between  the  Mends 


318      THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

and  opponents  of  the  Administration  at  Washington, 
how  easy  could  the  will  of  the  people  be  defeated  by 
the  arrest  and  abduction  of  enough  of  the  majority 
party  to  leave  the  organization  of  the  Legislature  in 
the  hands  of  the  minority  party  !  Gen.  Quitman 
denied  the  power  of  the  United  States  to  arrest  him. 
Hon.  Jacob  Thompson  wrote  to  him  from  Washington : 
'^  If  they  can  arrest,  they  can  refuse  bail;  if  they  can 
'*  refuse  bail,  they  can,  without  trial,  take  him  away 
"  from  his  duty,  incarcerate  him,  and  by  rendering  it 
"  impossible  for  him  to  perform  his  official  duties,  vir- 
**  tually  vacate  the  office  of  Governor  and  leave  the 
"  State  without  a  Chief  Executive.  This  is  an  absurd- 
"  ity.  The  consequence  of  the  power  claimed  annihi- 
'*  lates  State  sovereignty,  and  soon  we  may  expect  to 
"  see  Governors  of  States,  like  Iloman  satraps,  brought 
"  to  the  capital  in  chains  if  the  power  claimed  is  tamely 
"submitted  to."  Hon.  R.  Barnewell  Rhett  called 
upon  the  Governor  to  resist,  and  thus  bring  about  a 
collision  between  the  State  and  Federal  forces,  which 
must  ultimately  involve  the  whole  South. 

Gen.  Quitman  was  wiser  than  his  counsellors.  He 
saw  that  if  the  South  would  not  resist  the  Compromise 
Acts,  they  would  not  enter  into  a  war  with  the  General 
Government  because  of  an  indictment  found  by  a 
Grand  Jury  against  a  citizen  who  happened  to  be  Gov- 
ernor. The  people  sympathized  with  Quitman,  but 
they  held  that  every  citizen,  however  high  his  position, 
was  amenable  to  the  laws,  and  that  the  Governor  of  a 
State  should  be  arrested  for  counterfeiting  the  coin, 
robbing  the  mail,  piracy,  or  breaking  the  neutrality 
laws,  as  though  he  were  a  private  citizen.  The  argu- 
ment which  would  apply  to  the  Governor,  would  apply 


THE  CEADLB  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.      319 

equally  to  every  Executive  and  Legisla*tive  officer  of  a 
State.  If  none  bf  these  could  be  arrested  by  the 
United  States,  then  we  would  see  the  strange  spectacle 
of  thousands  of  citizens,  shielded  by  the  possession  of 
an  office,  violating  the  laws  of  the  Federal  Government 
with  impunity.  There  were  inconveniences  connected 
with  this  power  to  arrest  State  officers  ;  but  no  system 
of  government  could  be  devised  in  which  such  incon- 
veniences would  not  occur.  Politics  was  not  one  of 
the  exact  sciences.  So  fallible  was  human  nature  that 
all  the  wisdom  of  all  the  ages  was  not  adequate  to  foresee 
the  various  problems  which  would  arise. 

Quitman  determined  to  resign  the  office  of  Governor 
and  to  stand  his  trial.  The  jury  made  a  mistrial 
in  the-  case  of  Henderson,  and  thereupon  the  case 
against  Quitman  was  dismissed.  When  he  left  the 
court-room  thei;e  was  a  great  manifestation  of  popular 
sentiment  in  his  favor.  Deputations  from  Mississippi, 
Louisiana,  Alabama  and  South  Carolina  waited  upon 
him,  ollbriiig  congratulations.  This  display  of  feeling 
arose  from  the  profound  impression  on  the  Southern 
mind  that  Quitman  was  actually  enlisted  in  the  Cuban 
enterprise,  and  was  destined  to  be  the  liberator  of  that 
fair  island.  The  whole  South  sympathized  in  the 
movement ;  the  States-Rights  party,  because  in  the 
event  of  Southern  .secession  they  contemplated  a  mag- 
nificent Confederacy  of  slave-holding  States,  including 
Cuba,  Mexico  and  Central  America — the  old  dream  of 
Aaron  Burr  ;  the  Union  party,  because  in  the  annex- 
ation of  Cuba  the  preservation  of  the  balance  of  power 
would  postpone  that  dreaded  day  when  three-fourths  of 
the  States  would  be  anti-slavery. 

A  mass  meeting  was  called  at  Montgomery,  August 


320      THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

5,  1851,  to  express  sympathy  for  and  proffer  aid  to 
the  Cuban  independence  movement.  Gen.  Wm.  Tay- 
lor was  called  to  the  chair,  and  James  H.  Clanton,  a 
young  and  active  Whig,  was  invited  to  address  the 
people.  Taking  the  stand,  he  made  a  most  eloquent 
appeal  in  behalf  of  Cuba,  avowing  the  deepest  sympathy 
in  the  struggle  of  the  patriots  and  offering  his  personal 
services  in  their  behalf  He  concluded  by  offering  a 
resolution,  which  was  unanimously  adopted,  calling  upon 
the  Government  to  recognize  the  independence  of  the 
island.  Judge  Bibb  offered  a  resolution  soliciting  con- 
tributions for  the  cause.  At  the  close  of  Clanton's 
speech  many  wealthy  citizens  came  forward  with  liberal 
subscriptions,  and  a  number  of  young  men  enrolled 
themselves  in  a  company  for  the  purpose  of  joining  the 
expeditionary  force  of  Lopez.  That  force  had  sailed 
for  New  Orleans  a  few  days  before.  The  Montgomery 
company  elected  Clanton  Captain,  and  proceeded  to 
New  Orleans.  There  they  found  not  less  than  two 
thousand  volunteers  awaiting  transportation.  A  regi- 
ment was  organized  with  Wheat  as  Colonel  and  Clan- 
ton as  Lieutenant  Colonel.  The  troops  received  every 
attention  from  the  hospitable  citizens  of  New  Orleans, 
but  they  were  eager  and  impatient  to  embark.  They 
longed  to  set  foot  on  the  beautiful  island,  and  to  see  at 
last  the  stars  and  stripes  floating  over  MoRO  Castle. 
While  chafing  at  the  delay  of  embarking,  one  morning 
came  the  startling  news  of  the  defeat  of  Lopez,  his  cap- 
ture and  execution.  He  had  separated  himself  from 
the  command  of  Crittenden,  had  relied  too  much  upon 
the  co-operation  of  the  Cubans,  and  had  departed  from 
New  Orleans  without  waiting  for  the  troops  which  were 
now  pouring  in  from  all  quarters.     Had  he  taken  the 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.      321 

advice  of  Quttman,  kept  his  force  united,  debarked  at  a 
more  distant  port,  secured  the  arrival  of  an  army  of 
five  thousand  men  at  one  time,  his  expedition  would 
have  doubtless  been  crowned  with  victory.  He  failed, 
and  thus  added  another  to  the  many  proofs  that  no 
great  enterprises  can  be  pressed  to  success  under  the 
lead  of  the  dark  and  hybrid  races  of  Central  America. 
Lopez  was  executed  by  the  garote,  and  Col.  Crittenden 
and  his  men  were  shot.  When  ordered  to  his  knees, 
Crittenden  replied  :  "  Americans  kneel  only  to  their 
Godr 

The  Union  party  having  achieved  a  signal  victory 
all  over  the  South,  the  States-Rights  associations 
resolved  in  their  several  meetings  to  adjourn  the  ques- 
tion of  secession.  It  was  not  to  be  dismissed,  but  to 
remain  in  abeyance.  Mr.  Yancey's  policy  was  to  keep 
his  forces  well  organized  and  to  seize  the  next  pretext 
for  an  advance  movement.  To  strengthen  their  posi- 
tion, which  had  been  considerably  weakened  by  the 
repulse  on  the  Compromise  questions,  a  majority  of  the 
States-Rights  leaders  deemed  it  best  to  withdraw  under 
shelter  of  the  Democratic  organization.  By  drawing 
back  to  the  Democratic  party  those  who  had  been 
acting  with  the  Union  party,  they  forced  the  residue 
of  the  Unionists  to  return  to  the  Whig  organization. 
It  was  a  piece  of  masterly  generalship  to  load  the  Anti- 
Secession  party  of  Alabama  with  the  sins  of  the 
free-soil  wing  of  the  Whig  party  of  the  North;  to  attack 
them  as  partisans  of  Seward  rather  than  as  supporters  of 
the  Union.  The  Union  men  understood  the  tactics  of 
the  Secessionists,  and  struggled  to  preserve  the  Union 
organization.  A  Union  meeting  was  held  at  Mont- 
gomery in  December,  1857.      The  caU  for  it  was 


322      THE  CBADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

signed  by  all  the  leading  Whigs  of  the  General  Assem- 
bly and  several  leading  Democrats,  but  when  it  met  no 
Democrat  of  prominence  participated  in  its  session. 
They  determined  to  send  delegates  to  a  National  Union 
Convention,  and  to  urge  upon  their  approaching  State 
Convention  the  duty  of  joining  a  national  organization 
which  would  abide  by  the  Compromise,  and  alike  battle 
against  the  Secessionists  on  the  one  hand  and  the 
Abolitionists  on  the  other.  It  was  their  hope  that  the 
friends  of  the  Compromise  all  over  the  Union  would 
unite  upon  this  as  a  final  settlement  of  the  slavery 
question,  and  nominate  Mr.  Fillmore  for  the  Presidency. 
Before  the  State  Union  Convention  could  meet,  how- 
ever, there  were  developments  of  public  opinion  which 
divided  the  Union  ranks.  The  Union  Democrats, 
finding  that  the  Democratic  party  would  sustain  the 
Compromise  unequivocally  as  a  final  settlement,  deserted 
the  Union  organization  in  mass  and  raUied  under  their 
old  colors.  Of  the  Whigs  who  were^  left,  there  were  a 
lai'ge  majority  who  saw  the  futility  of  attempting  to 
make  a  National  organization  of  Whigs  alone,  under  a 
new  name  at  the  South,  so  long  as  the  Whigs  at  the 
North  retained  their  old  designation  and  were  preparing 
to  go  into  a  National  Convention.  They  argued  that, 
without  some  of  the  Southern  States,  the  Whig  party 
could  not  carry  the  Presidential  election,  and  that 
rather  than  lose  the  support  of  Southern  Whigs,  the 
National  Convention  would  endorse  the  Compromise ; 
that  if  the  Compromise  was  not  endorsed,  it  would  then 
be  time  to  separate  from  the  party ;  and  that  rather 
than  establish  a  sectional  party,  as  would  be  a  Union 
party  composed  of  Southern  Whigs  alone,  it  would  be 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.      323 

preferable  to  repose  confidence  in  the  National  Whig 
organization.     So  thought  Mr.  Hilliabd. 

A  portion  of  the  Alabama  Whigs  thought  differently. 
They  believed  that  a  return  to  the  Whig  party  would 
be  a  surrender  of  their  organization  into  the  hands  of 
the  Free  Soilers.  Mr.  Watts  published  a  letter  in  May, 
in  which  he  advocated  a  continuance  of  the  Union 
organization.  "  Look,"  said  he,  "  at  the  vote  of  the 
"  Democratic  caucus  assembled  at  the  commencement 
"  of  the  present  Congress,  repudiating  the  Compi'omise 
"  as  a  finality.  Look  at  the  vote  in  Congress  on  the 
i'  resolution  of  Mr.  Jackson,  of  Ga.,  as  amended  by  Mr. 
"  HiLLYER,  showing  that  Northern  members  of  Congress, 
"  as  well  as  many  Southern  members,  are  not  in  favor 
"  of  standing  firmly  by  the  Compromise.  And,  above 
"  all,  look  on  the  decision  of  the  Whig  Congressional 
"caucus  recently  assembled  in  Washington  City." 
Not  to  unite  with  the  National  Whig  Convention  was 
a  duty,  insisted  Mr.  Watts,  which  we  owed  "  to  the 
"  Southern  Whigs  who  withdrew  from  the  Congressional 
"  caucus,  and  to  the  other  noble  Whigs  who  refused  to 
"  go  into  it  after  the  announcement  of  the  chairman  of 
"the  caucus  that  he  would  entertain  no  resolutions 
"  looking  to  the  finality  of  the  Compromise  measures." 
The  vote  upon  the  resolution  of  Mr.  Jackson,  to  which 
Mr.  Watts  here  referred — a  resolution  to  recognize  the 
binding  efficiency  of  the  Compromises  of  the  Constitu- 
tion and  to  abide  by  such  Compromises  and  to  sustain 
the  laws  to  carry  them  out — was  as  follows  : 


Yeas. 

Nortiieiu  Democrats 35 

Southern  Democrats 39 

Southern  Whigs ...  20 

Northern  Whigs 7 

Total 101 


Nays. 

Northern  Democrats 22 

Southern  Democrats. 11 

Southern  Whigs 1 

Northern  Whigs 30 

Total 64 


324      THE  CBADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

•  Mr.  Watts,  from  this  vote,  drew  the  conclusion  that 
the  Northern  Democrats  were  dangerously  divided  as 
to  making  the  Compromise  a  conclusion  of  the  slavery 
agitation;  that  the  Southern  Democrats  were  materially 
*  divided  as  shown  by  the  vote,  and  were  known  to  be 
far  more  dangerously  divided  than  the  vote  shows ; 
that  the  Northern  Whigs  were  also  dangerously  divided, 
with  the  preponderance  largely  in  favor  of  renewed 
agitation ;  and  that  the  Southern  Whigs  were  alone 
united.  From  this  conclusion  he  argued  that  the 
Southern  Whigs  should  m'aintain  the  Union  organiza- 
tion, and  gradually  draw  to  its  support  all  those  ele- 
ments which  voted  yea  upon  Mr.  Jackson's  resolution. 
To  do  so  would  be  to  settle  the  slavery  question  now 
and  forever,  by  depriving  it  of  material  upon  which  to 
opei.ite.  Not  to  do  so  would  be  to  leave  the  question 
an  eltuient  of  discord  in  both  the  Whig  and  Demo- 
cratic organizations  until  it  should  rend  both  in  twain 
and  plunge  the  country  into  civil  war.  To  confirm 
this  view  of  Watts,  Clanton,  Judge  and  other  far- 
seeing  and  patriotic  Southern  Whigs,  the  New  York 
Tribune^  representing  the  Seward  Whigs,  replied  to 
the  protest  of  the  Southern  Whigs  at  the  Congressional 
caucus : 

"  Oh  green  and  verdant  gentlemen  of  the  House  of 
'^  Representatives,  ye  who  vainly  fancy  that  carrying 
"  the  Compromise  measures  through  your  illustrious 
"  body  is  a  great  political  stroke,  even  a  triumph  over 
"an  ever-active  principle  in  the  heart  of  man,  it  is  time 
"  you  were  resolving  that  the  sun  shall  stand  still  on 
"Gideon.  It  is  time  that  you  were  erecting  a  stage 
"  under  the  ends  of  the  rainbow  in  order  to  spike  it  on 
"  to  the  sky.     It  is  time  you  had  resolved  that  the 


tllE  CRADLE  OF  THE  OONFEDERAOY.  325 

"  ocean  should  cease  to  surge,  the  streams  to  flow  or 
**  the  seasons  to  return.  You  cannot  *  compromise  '  a 
^"question  of  human  freedom." 

When  the  State  Union  Convention  met,  those  who 
believed  that  the  Whig  party  would  endorse  the  Com- 
promise and  that  the  Democratic  party  would  not, 
proved  to  be  in  the  ascendant ;  and  the  Convention, 
after  a  faint  and  feeble  recommendation  for  a  National 
Union  Convention,  dissolved,  with  the  general  under- 
standing that  the  Whig  party  was  restored.  Mr. 
HiLLiARD,  who  had  been  favored  with  exalted  trusts 
under  the  Harrison,  and  again  under  the  Taylor 
Administration,  ever  eager  for  a  wide  national  theatre 
of  action,  and  ambitious  of  the  power  which  success 
would  give  the  leaders  of  a  national  party,  led  off,  at  a 
Macon  county  meeting,  in  favor  of  sending  delegates  to 
the  Whig  Convention.  The  Pickens  county  Whigs 
replied  with  a  similar  movement,  and  forthwith  the 
blows  of  the  Democratic  party  shattered  to  utter  disso- 
lution the  remaining  walls  of  the  Union  party.  Noth- 
ing was  now  left  of  the  organization  which  defeated 
secession  in  1850.  The  Whigs  had  cast  everything 
upon  the  chances  of  the  Baltimore  Convention.  If  they 
lost,  what  would  follow  ? 

If  the  Whig  Convention  did  not  fully  and  fairly 
accept  the  Compromise,  it  would  follow  that  the  Southern 
Whigs,  constituting  a  large  minority  of  the  Southern 
people,  and  one  which  by  the  aid  of  Union  Democrats 
could  always  arrest  an  attempt  at  secession,  would  be 
left  powerless.  If  slavery  agitation  was  to  contiime, 
they  must  take  the  side  of  their  people  and  their  ^ 
property,  and  demand  for  their  protection  every  guar-  ^ 
anty  of  the  Constitution.     If  the   North   would  not 


326  THE  CBA.DLE  OP  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

accept  a  compromise  in  which  the  Free-:  tate  party 
received  every  advantage  and  the  South  gave  up  more 
than  half  of  her  constitutional  rights,  then  the  Whigs 
of  the  South  would  also  hoist  the  banner  of  States- 
Rights  and  abide  the  issue. 

"  Let  us  go  and  demand  the  Compromise,"  said  the 
Whig  papers  of  Alabama. 

The  evening  before  the  meeting  of  the  Whig  National 
Convention  at  Baltimore,  a  caucus  of  ^^outhern  Whigs 
adopted  and  resolved  to  submit  to  the  Convention  the 
following  resolution : 

"  That  the  series  of  measures  commonly  known  as 
"  the  Compromise,  including  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law, 
''  are  received  and  acquiesced  in  by  the  Whig  party  of 
''  the  United  States,  as  a  settlement  in  principle  and 
"  substance — a  final  settlement — of  the  dangerous  and 
"  exciting  questions  which  they  embrace  ;  and,  so  far  as 
'-  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law  is  concerned,  we  will  main- 
"tain  the  same,  and  insist  on  a  strict  enforcement, 
''  until  time  and  experience  shall  demonstrate  the 
"  necessity  of  further  legislation,  to  guard  against 
"  evasion  or  abuse,  not  impairing  its  present  efficiency  ; 
''  and  we  deprecate  all  further  agitation  of  the  slavery 
''  question  as  dangerous  to  our  peace,  and  will  discouii- 
"  tenance  all  elForts  at  the  renewal  or  continuance  of 
"  such  agitation  in  Congress  or  out  of  it,  whenever, 
^''wherever  and  however  the  attempt  may  be  made ; 
"and  we  will  maintain  the  system  of  measures  as  a 
''policy  essential  to  the  nationality  of  the  Whig  party 
"  and  the  integrity  of  the  Union.^^ 

If  this  resolution  were  not  adopted  substantially,  the 
Southern  Whigs  were  to  withdraw.  It  will  be  ob- 
served that  it  embraced — 

**  1st.  A  distinct  recognition  of  and  acquiescence  in 
"  a  compromise  or  settlement^  embracing  a  series  ot  mea- 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.      3^7 

"  sures  known  by  that  name  and  including  the  Fugitive 

'*"2d.  A  declaration  that  said  settlement  shall  be  find. 

"  3d.  A  declaration  that  the  Fugitive  law,  as  a  part 
"  of  such  settlement,  shall  be  maintained  and  enforced 
"•  until  further  legislation  is  required  to  guard  against 
"  abuse  or  evasion. 

"  4th.  A  declaration  against  the  further  agitation  of 
"  the  Slavery  question,  in  Congress  or  out  of  it ;  and  a 
"  further  declaration  that  the  policy  thus  set  forth  in 
''  the  various  averments  of  the  resolution  is  essential  to 
"  the  nauionahty  of  the  Whig  party." 

Such  was  the  Southern  Whig  demand,  presented  as 
containing  no  one  point  which  could  be  spared,  if  the 
Whig  party  was  to  be  a  national  and  not  a  sectional 
party.  This  resolution  was  emasculated  by  the  Com- 
mittee of  the  Convention  and  adopted  by  that  body  in 
the  following  language  : 

"  3.  That  the  series  of  acts  of  the  Thirty-first  Con- 
"gress,  the  act  known  as  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law 
"  included,  are  received  and  acquiesced  in  by  the  Whig 
"  party  of  the  United  States  as  a  settlement,  in  principle 
"and  substance,  of  the  dangerous  and  exciting  ques- 
"  tions  which  they  embrace  ;  and,  so  far  as  they  are 
**  concerned,  we  will  maintain  them,  and  insist  upon 
"  their  strict  enforcement,  until  time  and  experience 
"  shall  demonstrate  the  necessity  of  further  legisla- 
"  tion  to  guard  against  the  evasion  of  the  laws  on 
"  the  one  hand,  and  the  abuse  of  their  powers  on  the 
"  other — not  impairing  their  present  efficiency  ;  and 
"  we  deprecate  all  further  agitation  ol  the  questions 
"  thus  settled  as  dangerous  to  our  peace,  and  will  dis- 
"  countenance  all  efforts  to  continue  or  renew  such 
"  agitation,  whenever^  wherever  or  however  the  attempt 
"  may  be  made ;  and  we  will  maintain  this  system  as 


328      THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

*•'  essential  to  the  nationality  of  the  Whig  party  and  the 
"  integrity  of  the  Union.'''' 

It  will  be  observed  that  this  resolution  differs  from 
the  other  in  these  respects  : 

"  1  St.  It  contains  no  sort  of  recognition  of  the  fact 
"  that  there  has  been  any  compromise  at  all  No  such 
*'  term,  no  such  fact,  no  such  idea  appears  in  it. 

"2d.  Still  less  does  it  recognize,  or  in  any  way 
"  allude  to  any  iinal  settlement. 

"3d.  The  resolution,  so  far  from  recognizing  any 
"special  covenant  obligation  in  the  compromise 
"  measures,  puts  them  all  upon  precisely  the  same 
"  footing  with  every  other  law  enacted  by  the  Thirty- 
"  first  Congress" 

As  soon  as  the  report  was  read,  Mr.  Rufus  Choate 
sprang  at  once  to  his  feet  to  interpose  the  dazzling 
shield  of  his  eloquence  between  the  ruins  of  their  reso- 
lution and  the  objections  of  the  Southern  Whigs. 
Adroitly  reminding  his  audience  that  he  had  not  heard 
the  exact  terms  of  the  last  resolution,  he  proceeded  at 
once  to  claim  for  it  a  merit  and  a  character  to  which  its 
exact  terms  present  a  marked  contrast.  He  under- 
stood, in  general^  that  it  affirmed  the  finality  of.  the 
Compromise,  and  that  it  deprecated  any  further  political 
agitation  on  the  subject  of  slavery.  And,  if  he  rightly 
understood  it,  he  made  haste  to  rise  and  thank  God 
that  the  doctrine  for  Whieh  he  had  contended  in  his 
measure  and  place,  though  circumstances  were  unpro- 
pitious,  in  Faneuil  Hall,  when  Faneuil  Hall  was  opened — 
if  he  might  judge  by  the  cheering  indications — seemed 
to  he  sustained  by  the  highest  authority  which,  as  a 
party  man  and  Whig,  he  could  recognise  in  the  Con- 
vention of  Union  Whigs  of  the  United  States. 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.  329 

But,  on  the-  contrary,  Mr.  Charles  Anderson,  of 
Ohio,  rose  sturdily  up  to  tell  the  plain  truth  about, the 
whole  business,  and  he  spoke  out  the  Whig  creed 
bluntly.  He  said  :  "  This  Compromise  was,  after  all, 
"  nothing  but  a  law  like  all  others  on  the  statute  hook, 
''  The  first  Compromise  of  Mr.  Clay  was  nothing  more 
"  than  an  act  regulating  the  duties  on  imports.  So  with 
"  this  Compromise — it  is  nothing  more  than  any  other 
"  law  on  the  statute  book.  Those  who  are  opposed  to 
"  it  at  the  North  are  men  who  do  so,  not  from  any 
"  passion  on  the  subject,  hut  from  sectional  pride. 
"  The  Whigs  of  the  free  States  have  witnessed  the 
*'  diminution  of  their  numbers — have  seen  their  friends 
"  go  off  by  scores — on  account  of  forcing  this  Compro- 
^' misp  upon  them'''' 

The  resolution  of  the  Southern  Whigs,  in  order  to 
soothe  the  Northern  animosity  to  certain  features  of 
the  Fugitive  Slave  Law,  provided  that  the  law  was  to 
be  maintained  until  experience  should  demonstrate  the 
necessity  of  further  legislation  to  guard  against  evasion 
of  its  provisions  or  an  abuse  of  its  powers.  The  other 
laws  were  to  be  maintained  as  final.  But  the  Conven- 
tion provided  that  experience  was  to  be  the  test  6f  all 
the  Compromise  laws.  This  change  in  the  wording  of 
the  resolution,  taken  in  connection  with  the  repeated 
declaration  of  members  that  the  Compromise  laws  were 
no  more  final  and  fixed  than*  other  laws,  and  with  the 
nomination  of  Gen.  Scott  over  Mr.  Fillmore  and '  Mr. 
Webster,  satisfied  many  leading  Whigs  of  the  South 
that  as  between  the  two  National  parties,  it  was  their 
duty  to  cast  themselves  with  the  Democratic,  which, 
to  the  surprise  of  Alabama  Whigs,  had  endorsed  the 
Compromise,  with  a  declaration  that  they  would  resist 


330      THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

all  attempts  at  renewing  in  Congress  or  out  the  agita- 
tion of  the  slavery  question.  Upon  this  platform,  all 
that  the  Union  party  of  Alabama  had  ever  asked,  they 
had  placed  as  their  candidate  for  Vice-President  a  dis- 
tinguished son  of  Alabama  who  had,  two  years  before, 
denounced  the  secession  movement  in  spirited,  prompt, 
and  unequivocal  terms. 

Immediately  upon  the  nomination  of  Gen.  Scorr, 
Alexander  H.  Stephens,  Robert  Toombs,  and  James 
Johnson,  of  Ga.,  Charles  James  Faulkner,  of  Va., 
Walter  Brooke,  of  Miss.,  Alexander  White  and  James 
Abercrombie,  of  Ala.,  published  a  card  in  the  Wash- 
ington papers  withholding  their  support  from  the  Whig 
nominees.  The  defection  of  these  leading  southern 
Whigs  created  quite  a  commotion  in  the  ranks  of  the 
party.  Mr.  Abercrombie  wielded  a  great  influence  in 
the  Montgomery  District,  and  Mr.  White  was  scarcely 
less  potent  in  the  Talladega  District.  Still  Messrs. 
HiLLiARD,  Langdon,  Watts,  Belser  and  the  bulk  of 
the  party  in  Alabama,  placed  upon  the  Whig  resolu- 
tion relating  to  the  Compromise  Acts  the  construc- 
tion which  Mr.  Choate  had  placed  upon  it,  and  which 
its  f)lausible  language  might  be  made  to  bear.  They 
resolutely  shut  their  eyes  to  the  construction  placed 
upon  it  by  the  Seward  Whigs  of  the  North,  as  well  as 
to  the  position  claimed  for  Gen.  Scott  by  the  New 
York  Tribune  as  the  ally  of  free- soil  and  emancipation. 

A  Scott  and  Graham  ratification  meeting  was  held 
at  Montgomery,  July  7,  and  speeches  were  made  by 
Moss,  Belser,  and  Clanton.  The  Whig  State  Con- 
vention met  Sept.  1  and  ratified  the  action  of  the 
Baltimore  Convention. 

The   States-Rights   party   found    themselves   in   a 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.      331 

difficult  position.  They  had  denounced  the  Compro- 
mise measures,  and  now  they  were  to  vote  to  accept 
them  as  the  least  oi  evils.  Then*  Convention,  which 
had  assembled  at  Montgomery  in  February,  had 
appointed  a  committee  to  draw  up  a  report  and  address 
to  the  people  of  the  State.  Upon  this  committee  were 
such  distinguished  lawyers  and  eminent  citizens  as  W. 
L.  Yancey,  John  A.  Elmore,  Sam'l  F.  Rice,  H.  M. 
Elmore,  and  G.  W.  Gayle.  The  address  was  pub- 
lished during  the'  spring,  disseminated  over  the  State, 
and  was  fresh  in  the  recollection  of  the  people  when  the 
two  National  Conventions  took  action.  It  said  that 
the  .States-Rights  associations  were  "  composed  of  men 
'^  who  believe  that  the  tendency  of  old  party  organi- 
'"  zations  has  been  to  lead  their  members  to  avoid  any 
"  decisive  action  on  the  great  slavery  question,  and  to 
"  wink  at  and  acquiesce  in  aggressions  on  the  South 
"  rather  than  endanger  party  success  by  opposition  to 
"  them,  and  who  have  determined  to  stand  aloof  from 
"  those  parties  until  the  wrongs  done  to  the  South, 
*'  while  each  of  those  parties  have  administered  the 
"  government,  shall  be  amply  redressed  and  the  rights 
"  of  the  South  fully  guaranteed  against  future  aggres- 
"  sion';  or  in  the  event  of  failure  of  such  just  demands, 
"  until  ^  new  safeguards  '  have  been  provided  for  the 
"  maintenance  of  our  liberties."  The  address  then 
argued  at  length  the  failure  of  the  Compromise  Acts  to 
do  the  South  full  justice,  and  concluded  by  advising 
the  people  of  Alabama  to  secede  at  once.     It  said  : 

''  In  view  of  our  condition,  the  question  forces  itself 
"  upon  us-  -'  What  policy  does  our  interest  and  our 
"  duty  alike  dictate  shall  be  pursued  by  us  ?'  In  the 
"  opinion  of  the  Convention,  the  only  issue  which  can 


332      THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

"  be  made  in  answer  to  that  question  is- — Submission 
"  or  Secession. 

"  The  first  is  recommended  to  you  under  the  more 
"  honeyed  term,  *  acquiescence.'  It  implies  that  past 
"  aggressions  afford  no  ground  for  resistance,  and  that 
"  your  safety  is  not  endangered  by  submission. 

^'  Fellow-citizens !  The  Abolitionist  recommends  to 
"  you  to  submit !  The  Federalist  says  it  is  your 
"  duty  I  The  North  desires  you  to  interpose  no 
"  obstacle  to  the  success,  of  its  designs !  In  what 
"  consists  the  difference  between  such  advice  from 
"  such  quarters,  and  the  same  advice  from  some  of 
"  your  own  brethren  ?  Simply  in  this :  the  advice  of 
"  the  first  is  dictated  by  a  selfish  desire  to  be  unmo- 
"  lested  in  their  operations  against  you ;  that  of  the 
"  latter  is  dictated  from  a  selfish  desire,  on  the  part  of 
"  the  leaders,  to  preserve  unimpaired  that  old  party 
"  organization  which  tends  to  elevate  them  to  power 
"  and  place  in  this  government — and  on  the  part  of 
"  the  masses  who  tollow  them,  by  that  feeling  of  timidity 
"  and  love  of  ease,  which  in  ages  past  has  permitted 
"many  a  tyrant  to  rule  millions  of  his  fellow  men. 
"  Tories  were  found  in  the  days  of  the  Revolution  to 
"  denounce  our  fathers  as  *  agitators/  and  to  preach  up 
"  *  acquiescence '  in  the  action  of  the  parent  govern- 
"  ment,  and  to  portray  the  horrors  of  war  to  the  excited 
"  imaginations  of  the  weak.  Men  are  found  now  to  do 
"  the  same  thing. 

"  '  Acquiescence '  is  the  policy  which  the  wisest  free- 
"  soiler  may  well  advocate.  A  '  masterly  inactivity  ' 
'*  now,  will  accomplish  all  his  aims.  Time,  acting  as 
"  the  friend  of  his  scheme,  will  ripen  his  measures  into 
"  a  profuse   fruition.     Free  soil  State  after   free   soil 


'   THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.      333 

"  State  will  come  into  the  Union.  The  free  soil  majority 
"  now  in  the  Senate  will  increase  with  each  accession. 
"  The  free  soil  majority  in  the  House  will  continue  to 
"  enlarge  its  gigantic  proportions.  The  Executive  will 
"  be  but  the  reflex  of  a  dominant  free  soil  power  in 
"  the  government ;  while  the  South,  with  no  hope  of 
"  corresponding  territorial  expansion,  will  be  struggling 
"  with  the  very  plethora  of  slavery.  Our  public  men 
"  seduced  from  the  thorny,  self-denying  path  of  duty, 
"  will  be  found  struggling  for  place  in  the  affections  of 
"  some  Northern  President.  And  when  Time  shall 
*'  have  ruthlessly  produced  these  effects,  and  the  sunny 
"  South  has  become  the  Ireland  of  the  Union,  the  spirit 
"  of '  Acquiescence  '  may  complacently  claim  them  to 
^*  be  the  fruits  of  her  policy — a  pohcy  but  occasionally 
"and  feebly  disturbed  by  some  Emmett  whom  the 
"  sufferings  of  our  land  may  induce  to  attempt  its 
"  rescue,  and  whose  blood  will  quench  the  feeble  fire  of 
"  patriotism,  which  his  eloquence  may  serve  to  kindle 
"  in  the  bosoms  of  his  abject,  '  acquiescing '  coun- 
'  trymen." 

The  language  of  this  address  stigmatized  as  Tories 
and  Federalists  those  who  advocated  acquiescence  in 
the  Compromise.  But  the  Democratic  party  had  now 
acquiesced  in  it,  and  even  more  plainly  and  unequivo- 
cally than  those  who  had  just  composed  the  Union 
party.  What  was  to  be  done?  Mr.  Williams,  who 
was  President  of  the  Association,  and  Mr.  Elmore,  of 
the  Committee  on  the  Address,  wrote  to  Gen.  Pierce 
and  Gen.  SeoiT  asking  them  to  define  their  position  on 
the  question  of  slavery.  Gen.  Scott  replied  that  his 
letter  of  acceptance  was  his  only  reply  to  the  numerous 
letters  he  received  relative  to  his  political  views.     Gen. 


334      THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDEBACY. 

Pierce  made  no  reply.  Gen.  Quitman  was  also  written 
to.  The  reply  of  this  distinguished  gentleman  was 
satisfactory  to  the  association.  He  rejoiced  to  learn 
that  the  Southern-Rights  party  of  Alabama  still 
retained  its  organization.  The  policy  whether  they 
should  go  into  the  Presidential  contest  as  an  organized 
party,  was  one  which  they  alone  could  decide.  If  the 
people  of  the  whole  South  finally  settle  down  into  quiet 
acquiescence  in  this  precedent  set  and  the  encroach- 
ments made  by  the  aggressive  measures  in  question, 
they  will  soon  have  nothing  worth  contending  for. 

Upon  the  receipt  of  these  letters,  the  States-Rights 
party  were  called  together  in  Convention  at  Montgom- 
ery Sept.  13,  and  unanimously  adopted  a  report 
declaring  that,  whereas  Messrs.  Pierce  and  Scott  had 
failed  to  answer  the  interrogatories  propounded  to  them, 
they  could  not  consistently  vote  for  either.  They 
therefore  recommended  the  nomination  of  Ex-Gov. 
Geo.  M.  Troup,  of  Ga.,  and  Gen.  John  A.  Quitman,  of 
Mississippi,  for  the   Presidency  and  Vice-Presidency. 

Immediately  after  the  Democratic  nomination  Gen. 
Quitman  had  said  in  a  published  letter  : 

"  It  was  but  a  short  time  since  we  regarded  some  of 
"  the  compromise  measures  as  unjust,  destructive  of  the 
"  equality  of  the  Southern  States,  against  the  spirit,  if 
"  not  the  letter,  of  the  Constitution,  and  evidence  of  a 
"  fixed  design  to  abolish  slavery  everywhere.  K  our 
"  opinions  are  changed — we  have  found  ourselves  mis- 
"  taken ;  if  these  measures  are  so  benign  as  to  deserve  a 
"place  in  our  political  creed,  let  us  honestly  make 
'^  proclamation  to  that  effect,  and  raise  altars  to  their 
"  authors,  Clay,  Cass,  and  Foote.  But  if  not,  let  us 
"  not  write  ourselves  down  as  asses  or  rogues.  How 
"  would  Colonel  Davis,  Governor  Brown,  or  I  appear, 
"  vindicating,  defending,  and  approving  such  a  platform  ? 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.      335 

^'  Why,  those  political  chameleons,  Foote  and  Sharkey, 
"  could  not  beat  it.  But  1  must  conclude  by  summing 
"  up  :  My  present  opinion  then,  is,  that  if  Pierce  be 
"  nominated  without  any  indorsement  of  the  compro- 
"  mise  measures,  and  if  he  assume  no  other  objectional 
''  positions,  States-Rights  men  should  give  him  their 
"  support.  If,  on  the  other  hand,  the  Convention  have 
"  placed  him  on  that  ebony  and  topaz  platform,  I 
"  think  it  will  become  our  duty  to  stand  aloof,  or,  what 
"  would  be  better,  if  we  can  muster  spirit,  use  our  exer- 
"  tions  to  rouse  up  and  rally  the  old  State-Rights  Guard, 
"  form  societies,  hold  conventions,  nominate  a  separate 
"  ticket,  and  declare  war  to  the  knife. 

"  But  it  may  be  said  that  such  action  on  our  part 
"  might,  perhaps,  result  in  the  defeat  of  the  Democratic 
"  ticket  and  success  of  the  Whig.  All  the  answer  I 
"  have  to  this  is,  that  if  Democracy  is  to  retain  power 
*'  by  striding  this  centaur,  hobby,  with  Abolition'  head 
"  and  Southern  tail,  it  had  better  be  unhorsed.  If 
"  reorganized  Democracy  admits,  the  absolute  doctrines 
'^  of  the  existence  and  sovereignty  of  a  supreme 
"  national  government,  possessing  power  to  coerce  the 
"  States,  nothing  will  be  lost  by  its  defeat  and  de- 
"  struction." 

The  outspoken  sentiments  of  Gen.  Quitman  were 
endorsed  by  the  entire  States-Rights  party,  yet  one 
branch  of  it  supported  Gen.  Pierce  and  the  other 
repudiated  him.  Of  the  latter  class,  was  Mr.  Fisher, 
editor  of  the  Southern  Press.  Writing  from  Washing- 
ton, he  said  : 

"  I  can  not  concur  in  the  support  of  Pierce  at  all 
"  with  such  a  platform,  and  I  can  not  isolate  him  from 
"  it  when  he  says  it  is  in  accordance  with  his  judgment. 
'-  If  a  Southern-Rights  party  had  resolved  to  support 
"  him  with  a  distinct  repudiation  of  the  platform,  and 
"  with  a  power,  from  its  own  separate  organization,  of 
''  resisting  his  administration  in  any  attempt  to  pursue 


336      THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONPEDERAOY. 

"the  compromise  policy,  I  could  have  co-operated. 
"  But  you  must  forgive  me  for  saying  that  I  consider 
"  it  one  of  the  most  disastrous  signs  of  the  times  that 
"  men  of  the  two  extremes,  Free  Soilers'and  Fire- 
"  eaters,  hasten  into  parties  and  yet  repudiate  the 
"  platforms.  It  looks  like  a  love  of  party  for  the  sake 
"of  party.  The  consequence  is,  the  success  of  the 
"  Democratic  party  will  be  the  complete  ascendency  of 
"  Compromise  faction,  and  the  continual  defection 
"  of  Southern-Rights  men  in  order  to  obtain  place." 

Of  the  former  class  was  Hon.  E.  C.  Wilkinson,  of 
Miss.,  one  of  the  Pierce  electors,  who,  writing  to 
Quitman,  said : 

"  It  would  doubtless  have  been  better  for  the  party 
"  with  which  I  am  now  acting,  if  you  had  not  pursued 
"  this  course,  but  I  can  not  say  that  I  see  anything 
"in  what  you  have  published  inconsistent  with  your 
*'  own  antecedents.  Yours  is  a  position  somewhat  dif- 
"  ferent  from  that  of  any  other  States-Rights  man  in 
"  Mississippi.  You  are  expected  to  carry  out  your 
"  creed  in  all  its  severity,  and  not  to  flinch  in  the  least 
"  from  its  conclusions.  The  time  may  come,  and  I  do 
"  not  doubt  it  will,  when  you  will  find  your  advantage 
"in  it;  for  when  the  States-Rights  party  is  formed 
"  again  (and  who  can  tell  how  soon  it  may  be  reorgan- 
"  ized  ?)  it  will  naturally  turn  at  once  to  you,  who  have 
"  stood,  and  stand  now,  like  old  Torquil  in  the  romance 
"of  Scott,  all  alone,  battered,  but  not  beaten,  while 
"  every  living  soul  has  fallen  around  you." 

Mr.  Yancey  was  of  that  class,  who  as  bold  as 
Quitman,  were  as  cautious  as  Wilkinson.  He  well  knew 
that  the  Compromise  could  not  be  depended  upon  as  a 
settlement  of  the  slavery  question.  His  own  resolu- 
tions, rejected  in  1848,  denying  the  power  of  the  people 
of  a  territory  to  drive  out  slavery  before  the  adoption 
of  a  constitution  for  State  government,  would  renew 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.  33T 

the  strife  again  whenever  presented  in  a  National  Con- 
vention or  in  Congress.  The  question  whether  the 
Compromise  of  1850  had  not  overthrown  that  of  1820 
and  opened  up  all  the  territories  to  slavery,  was  another 
entering  wedge  which  at  any  time  could  be  driven  to 
the  heart  of  the  Union  and  rend  it  in  twain.  The 
success  of  the  Democratic  party  would  give  the  South 
the  control  of  it.  Let  him  once  become  the  power 
behind  the  throne,  and  he  would  show  himself  greater 
than  the  throne !  Let  the  deluded  people  North  and 
South  accept  the  Compromise  as  a  finality,  there  were 
a  hundred  ways  of  renewing  the  agitation,  and  at  the 
same  time  protesting  that  the  Compromise  justified  it ! 
There  was  no  estoppel  in  politics.  The  States-Rights 
men  were  determined  that  the  agitation  should  be 
renewed,  and  they  knew  very  well  that  the  Free  Soil 
party  were  intent  upon  something  more  radical  than 
building  a  platform  under  the  end  of  a  rainbow  and 
attempting  to  fasten  it  to  the  sky  with  a  spike. 

At  the  Presidential  election  in  November,  the  vote 
of  Alabama  was  for  Pierce,  26,881  ;  for  Scott,  15,038 ; 
for  Troup,  2,174.  The  vote  for  Polk  in  1847,  had 
been  37,740,  and  for  Cass  in  1848,  31,363.  Not  less 
than  15,000  Democrats  Med  to  vote  for  Pierce,  and 
not  less  than  15,000  Whigs  failed  to  vote  for  Scott. 
Here  was  a  mass  of  thirty  thousand  reflecting  men  who 
had  been  driven  fi-om  the  Whig  party  by  the  agitation 
of  the  Abolitionists,  or  led  away  from  the  Democrats 
by  the  agitation  of  the  States-Rights  party.  This 
formidable  array  of  malcontents  were  ready  for  an 
advance  movement. 


CHAPTER     XIII. 


The  Kansas-Nebraska  Bill — Preparing  for  Battle  Over 
the  Outpost — Sharpe  Rifles — Emigrant  Societies — Rise 
of  the  American  Party — Fillmore  and  Buchanan  in  the 
Southwest — Political  Elements  of  the  Elections  of  1856 j 


Etc.,  Etc. 


"  At  the  coming  election  I  cannot  doubt  that  the  free  states  *  *  will 
tak«  possession  of  this  government,  restore  to  the  Constitution  the  pro- 
portions of  power  established  by  Washington,  reinstate  in  full  force  that 
barrier  against  the  extension  of  slavery  called  the  Missouri  Compromise, 
make  Kansas  a  free  State,  and  put  an  end  forever  to  the  addition  of  any 
more  slave  States  to  this  Union— duties  to  be  fulfilled  at  any  hazard— even 
to  the  dissolution  of  the  Union  itself."— [JosiAS  Quincey,  Sb.,  June  5, 1856.] 

'•  Your  estate  is  gracious  that  keeps  you  out  of  hearing  of  our  politics. 
Anything  more  low,  obscene,  purulent,  the  manifold  bearings  of  history 
have  not  cast  up.  We  shall  come  to  the  worship  of  onions,  cats  and 
things  vermiculate.  •  Renown  and  grace  are  dead.'  *  There  is  nothing 
serious  in  mortality.'  If  any  wiser  saw  or  instance  ancient  or  modern 
occurred  to  me  to  express  the  enormous,  impossible  inanity  of  Am^erican 
things,  I  should  utter  it."— [Rxtfus  Choate,  1855,] 


When  the  House  Territorial  Committee  reported  in 
1853,  a  bill  to  organize  the  Territory  of  Nebraska,  no 
question  was  raised  as  to  the  Missouri  Compromise 
having  been  repealed  by  the  compromise  of  1850. 
The  bill  was  adopted  by  a  vote  of  98  to  43.  It  was 
silent  as  to  slavery  ;  the  whole  territory,  including  what 
was  afterwards  Kansas,  lying  north  of  36  deg.  30  min- 
Those  who  voted  for  it  were  alike  Democrats,  Whigs, 
and  Free  Soilers.  This  bill  was  reported  back  to  the 
Senate  by  Mr.  Douglas,  Chairman  of  the  Senate  Ter- 
ritorial Committee,  without  amendment,  on  the  last 
day  of  the  session,  March  3,  1853.     The  debate  upon 


340      THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONPBDERACY. 

it  barely  alluded  to  the  question  of  slavery.  It  was 
laid  upon  the  table  because  of  objections  to  the  manner 
in  which  it  dealt  with  the  Indians.  A  year  later  Mr. 
Douglas,  against  the  remonstrance  of  President  Pierce, 
it  is  said,  and  apparently  looking  to  the  Presidential 
succession  by  means  of  the  Southern  vote,  brought 
forward  an  amendment  to  a  bill  introduced  by  a  Sena- 
tor from  Iowa — to  organize  the  Territory  of  Kansas, 
and  which,  like  the  preceding  Nebraska  bill,  was  silent 
as  to  slavery — declaring  that  "  when  admitted  as  a  State 
^'  or  States,  the  said  Territory,  or  any  portion  of  the 
"  same,  shall  be  received  into  the  Union  with  or  without 
"  slavery,  as  their  Constitution  may  provide  at  the 
"  time  of  their  admission."  This  amendment,  referring 
in  express  terms  to  the  Missouri  Compromise,  declared 
that,  being  inconsistent  with  the  principles  of  non- 
intervention laid  down  by  the  compromise  of  1850,  it 
was*  inoperative  and  void.  From  that  day  began  the 
renewed  slavery  agitation  which  was  not  to  rest  until 
the  Continent  was  drenched  in  blood. 

The  Free  Soilers,  who  had  been  quiet  since  the  elec- 
tion of  President  Pierce  in  1852,  now  rejoiced  to  find 
food  upon  which  to  strengthen  their  fortunes.  The 
amendment  of  Mr.  Douglas  was  denounced  by  Sumner, 
Seward  and  Chase  in  unmeasured  terms.  The 
sanctity  of  the  Missouri  Compromise  (never  voted  for 
by  thfe  Free  Soilers,  and  always  rejected  by  them 
whenever  advanced  by  the  South),  was  held  up  to  the 
North  as  violated  by  slave  propagandists.  Resolutions 
against  the'  passage  of  the  bill  were  forwarded  to 
Congress  by  New  York  and  Massachusetts.  Memorials 
flowed  in  against  it  fi:om  every  portion  of  the  North, 
East  and  West.     Three    thousand    and    fifty    New 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  OONFEDBEACY.  341 

England  ministers,  in  a  petition,  protested  against  it. 
Mrs.  Stowe  and  eleven  hundred  women  of  Andover, 
Mass.,  joined  the  memorialists,  who  were  now  stining 
up  the  worst  blood  of  the  people.  The  anti-slavery 
sentiment  of  the  North  had  been  intensified  during  the 
past  year  by  the  unprecedented  circulation  of  Mrs. 
Stowe's  novel  against  slavery.  "  Uncle  Tom's  Cabin  " 
had  drawn  tears  from  the  eyes  of  hundreds  of  thousands, 
and  given  birth  to  a  horror  against  slavery  in  the 
Northern  mind  which  all  the  politicians  could  never 
have  created  or  allayed.  Of  that  remarkable  work, 
which  did  more  than  all  else  to  array  the  North  and 
South  in  compact  masses  against  each  other,  400,000 
copies  were  sold  in  the  United  States.  One  edition 
was  pubhshed  in  the  German  language  and  circulated 
among  the  Germans  of  the  West.  Over  500,000 
were  sold  in  England.  It  was  translated  into  every 
language  of  Europe,  and  into  several  of  those  of  Asia, 
including  Arabic  and  Armenian.  In  many  of  these 
languages,  as  in  the  German,  French,  Italian,  Welsh, 
Wallachian,  and  Russian,  there  were  from  two  to 
twelve  different  translations. 

The  Whigs  of  the  South  could  not  understand  why 
Douglas  should  renew  the  slavery  agitation  by  his 
inauspicious  amendment.  When  Texas  was  about  to 
be  annexed,  Mr.  Alex.  H.  Stephens  had  well  expressed 
their  sentiments  when  he  said  of  slavery  :  "  I  have  no 
"  wish  to  see  it  extended  to  other  countries ;  and  if 
"  the  annexation  of  Texas  were  for  the  sole  purpose  of 
'*  extending  slavery  where  it  does  not  now,  and  would 
"  not  otherwise  exist,  I  would  oppose  it  " — and  when 
at  a  later  day  he  had  said  of  the  measures  of  1 850  : 
"  Whatever  abstract  rights  of  extension  and  expansion 


342      THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CGNEEBERACY. 

"  we  may  have  secured  in  the  settlement  of  that  policy, 
"  you  may  not  expect  to  see  many  of  the  territories 
"  come  into  the  Union  as  slave  States  unless  we  have 
"  an  increase  of  African  stock.  The  law  of  population 
"  will  prevent.  We  have  not  the  people."  More  than 
half  of  the  Whigs  of  Alabama  had  refused  to  vote  for 
Gen.  Scott  because  they  believed  his  administration 
would  not  abide  by  the  Compromises  as  a  final  settle- 
ment. A  large  body  of  them  had,  since  the  adoption 
of  the  Pierce  platform,  given  in  their  adhesion  to  the 
Democracy,  in  the  vain  hope  that  the  policy  of  the  new 
administration  would  be  to  let  the  question  of  slavery 
alone. 

If  the  citizen  had  a  right  to  carry  his  slave  to  any 
territory  north  of  36  deg.  30  min.,  why  not  let  the 
courts,  they  asked,  decide  the  question  ?  Why  incor- 
porate a  declaration  as  to  his  power  to  do  so  in  an  Act 
of  Congress — especially  when  there  was  little  or  no 
probability  that  any  citizen  would  thus  defy  the  laws 
of  nature  and  the  dictates  of  prudence  ?  Whenever 
Kansas  should  apply,  with  a  constitution  recognizing 
slavery,  it  would  be  time  enough  for  Congress  to 
express  their  opinion ;  but  there  was  no  more  necessity 
nor  occasion  to  declare  in  advance  of  the  fact  that  'she 
should  be  received  as  a  State  recognizing  slaves  as 
property,  than  to  declare  that  she  should  be  received 
with  a  constitution  recognizing  property  in  buffaloes 
or  saw-mills.  It  was  a  mere  trick  of  politicians  to 
pander  to  the  sentiments  of  States-Rights  men  who 
controlled  the  Democratic  party  South.  Grant  the 
abstract  principle  to  be  true,  it  was  equally  true  when 
the  first  compromise  was  adopted.  If  we  were  to  fall 
back  on  abstract  principle,  why  had  not  the  Southern 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.      343 

man  a  right  to  have  his  property  protected  in  a  North- 
ern State  as  well  as  in  a  Territory  ?  But  while  the 
Southern  Whigs  were  preparing  to  organize  themselves 
anew  in  opposition  to  the  Kansas-Nebraska  Bill,  the 
tornado  from  the  anti-slavery  party,  now  forming  itself 
into  the  Republican  party,  swept  down  from  the  North 
with  its  whirlwind  of  angry  passion,  its  derisive  and 
abusive  epithets,  its  threats  of  violence  and  disunion, 
and  its  actual  nullification  and  obstruction  of  law. 

HiLLiARD,  Watts  and  other  Whig  leaders  had  already 
announced  themselves  against  the  policy  of  the  repeal 
of  the  Missouri  Hne  But  what  mortal  could  brook  the 
assaults  which  New  England  hurled  at  all  the  South 
indiscriminately,  and  live  ?  Before  the  passage  of  the 
bill,  an  event  occurred  which  silenced  any  protest 
which  the  Southern  Whigs  might  have  been  disposed  to 
make,  and  which  drove  them  away  from  all  considera- 
tion of  compromises  to  an  assertion  of  constitutional 
principle.  Previous  to  the  passage  of  the  Compromises 
they  had  held  that  the  Southern  citizen  had  a  right  to 
carry  his  slave  property  to  a  common  territory,  as  the 
citizen  of  Georgia  had  carried  his  slaves  to  Alabama 
and  Mississippi.  The  opposition  of  the  Free  toilers  to 
the  Missouri  Compromise,  so  repeatedly  expressed ; 
their  constant  demand  for  a  Congressional  Act  forbid- 
ding slavery  in  the  Territories ;  their  Personal  Liberty 
Laws,  designed  to  nullify  the  act  for  the  rendition  of 
fugitive  slaves — all  tended  to  drive  the  Whigs,  in 
common  with  other  slaveholders,  to  the  further  position 
that  Congress  should  not  by  its  agent,  the  Territorial 
Legislature,  do  that  indirectly  which  it  could  not  do 
directly.  The  Missouri  line  being  removed  by  the 
common  consent  of  the  Free  Soil  North  and  the  States- 


344      THE  CRADLE  OP  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

Rights  South,  nothing  was  left  for  the  Southern  Whigs 
except  to  adhere  to  the  principle  adopted  by  Mr.  Clay 
and  his  compeers  in  1850  for  the  government  of  New 
Mexico. 

The  event  which  destroyed  any  effort  at  a  restora- 
tion of  the  Compromise  of  1820,  and  drove  the 
Southern  Whigs  to  a  clear  enunciation  of  abstract 
rights,  was  the  passage  by  the  Legislature  of  Massa- 
chusetts of  an  Act  incorporating  "  The  Massachusetts 
"  Emigrant  Aid  Company."  The  incorporators  were 
leading  Free  Soil  poUticians.  Their  capital  stock  was 
to  be  five  millions  of  dollars.  The  men  who  directed 
the  company,  and  the  large  amount  of  money  to  be  ex- 
pended, proved  to  the  South  that  it  was  a  scheme  to 
acquire  political  control  of  the  new  Territory — to 
interfere  with  the  natural  laws  of  immigration,  and  to 
thrust  out  the  property  of  legitimate  Southern  emi- 
grants by  seizing  and  misusing  the  powers  of  the  Terri- 
torial Legislature.  This  company  was  followed  by 
another  with  a  similar  capital  of  five  millions,  and 
styled  "Emigrant  Aid  Society."  An  Association  of 
Free  Soil  Congressmen  was  at  the  same  time  secretly 
formed  at  Washington,  under  the  name  of  the  "  Kansas 
"  Aid  Society,"  whose  object  was  to  send  persons  to 
Kansas  to  "prevent  the  introduction  of  slavery." 
These  associations  were  undoubtedly  violative  of  the 
letter  of  no  law ;  the  emigration  of  citizens  opposed  to 
slavery  was  a  legal  right  not  to  be  disputed ;  but  to 
the  Southern  people  it  appeared  a  great  moral  wrong, 
and  contrary  to  the  peaceful  spirit  of  Republican  fijov- 
ernment,  that  the  political  control  of  a  Territory  or 
State  should  be  secured  by  the  use  of  vast  sums  of 
money,  and  the  employment  of  vagabond  mercenaries 


i 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.      345 

as  against  a  fair  and  free  expression  of  the  will  of  resi- 
dent and  permanent  citizens.  If  such  a  system  of 
crusade  were  admissable,  what  was  to  prevent  a  similar 
inroad  of  immigrants  into  Missouri,  Kentucky,  or  Vir- 
ginia, and  the  overthrow  and  destruction  of  valuable 
property  by  the  votes  of 'paid  persons  who  had  no 
interest  in  the  soil  ?  Ten  millions  of  dollars  could  give 
sustenance  for  twelve  months  to  one  hundred  thousand 
voters.  This  army  of  crusaders  thrown  from  Territory 
to  State,  and  from  State  to  State,  would  be  so  powerful 
as  to  carry  Free  Soilism  wherever  it  might  go.  The 
forces  sent  out  by  the  Emigrant  Aid  Societies  were 
well  armed  with  breech-loading  rifles  of  approved  army 
pattern — not  fowling  pieces  for  game,  nor  the  ordinary 
huntsman's  rifle — but  short  and  rifled  breech-loaders, 
suitable  only  for  warfare.  These  rifles  were  often  pre- 
sented by  churches.  The  Free  Soil  newspapers  sport- 
ingly  alluded  to  "  the  Sharpe's  rifle  argument." 

Down  to  this  moment  a  majority  of  Southern  people 
had  not  entertained  a  thought  of  forcing  slavery  into 
Kansas.  The  few  settlers  from  Missouri  were  more 
than  outnumbered  by  those  from  Iowa.  They  knew 
that  the  South  had  not  the  white  population  nor  the 
slaves  to  indulge  in  such  a  rash  experiment.  A  large 
minority  of  the  South  were  at  that  very  time  protesting 
against  the  removal  of  the  Missouri  Compromise.  But 
when  the  march  of  a  Northern  army  and  the  gleam  of 
Northern  arms  announced  that  the  war  had  begun,  it 
was  useless  for  them  to  talk  further  of  conciliation  and 
compromise.  The  largest  slave-holding  counties  of  the 
South  had  been  invariably  Whig.  Their  overtures  to 
the  North  had  been  rejected ;  their  compromise  of 
rights  had  been  certainly  spurned  ;  their  property  was 


346      THE  CRADLE  OP  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

now  being  warred  against.  Still  they  yearned  for  and 
expected  peace  and  Union.  Their  only  hope  now  was 
in  the  boldest  position — in  the  declaration  and  mainte- 
nance of  the  abstract  principle  on  the  part  of  the  South, 
and  a  solemn  determination  to  meet  force  with  force  on 
the  fields  of  Kansas.  Opposed  as  they  were  to  the 
repeal  of  the  .  dssouri  Compromise,  now  that  it  was 
removed,  they  would  obey  the  new  law  and  see  to  it 
that  its  principle  of  peaceable  non-intervention  should 
be  carried  out.  It  had  always  been  their  opinion  that 
a  law  of  Congress  should  be  obeyed  until  it  was  re- 
pealed. They  were  for  the  Union,  the  Constitution  and 
the  enforcement  of  the  laws  in  spirit  as  well  as  letter. 

Far  different  was  the  sentiment  of  the  Free  Soil 
agitators.  At  a  pubHc  meeting  held  in  his  church  in 
the  interest  of  the  "  l'  migrant  Aid  Society,  Rev. 
Henry  Ward  Beecher  said  that  "  he  believed  that  the 
"  Sharpe  rifle  was  truly  a  moral  agency,  and  there  was 
"  more  moral  power  in  those  instruments,  so  far  as  the 
"  slaveholders  of  Kansas  were  concerned,  than  in  a 
**  hundred  Bibles.' '  Such  was  the  blasphemy  of  the 
Abolition  Church.  Mr.  Lloyd  Garrison  said :  "  Mas- 
"  sachusetts  has  already  made  it  a  penal  offence  to  help 
''  to  execute  a  law  of  the  Union.  I  want  to  see  the 
"  officers  of  the  State  brought  into  collision  with  those 
"  of  the  Union."  Such  was  the  treason  of  Abolition 
legislation.  Again  said  Mr.  GAiiRisoN  :  "  No  Union 
'^  with  slave-holders.  Up  with  the  flag  of  disunion,  that 
"  we  may  have  a  fi'ee  and  glorious  Union  of  our  own." 
Such  was  the  cry  and  the  hope  of  the  Northern  Seces- 
sion party.  Said  Mr.  Joshua  R.  Giddings  :  "  I  would 
"  not  be  understood  as  desiring  a  servile  insurrection ; 
"  but  I  say  to  Southern  gentlemen,  that  there  are  hun- 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.      347 

"  dreds  of  thousands  of  honest  and  patriotic  men  who 
"  will  laugh  at  your  calamity  and  mock  when  your  fear 
"  Cometh."  Such  was  the  humanity  of  the  Abolition 
heart. 

'  That,  at  the  outset,  the  abrogation  of  the  Missouri 
line  was  not  intended  to  carry  slavery  North  of  it,  and 
that  the  South  entertained  no  hope  or  expectation  of 
such  a  result,  is  evidenced  by  a  speech  of  Mr.  Yancey, 
in  which  he  said  : 

"  The  South  had  done  its  duty  in  using  all  its' 
"  exertions  to  bring  Kansas  into  the  Union  '  in  accord^' 
*'  ance  with  the  p  inciples  of  the  Constitution.'  She  did* 
"  it  knowing  that  the  new  State  would  be  represented' 
"  by  Free  Soil  Senators  and  Representatives.  She  had 
'^  nobly  performed  her  duty  without  counting  the  cost." 
It  was  in  May,  1854,  that  the  Free  Soil  party  took 
up  arms,  by  its  Emigrant  Aid  organization,  to  "  prevent 
"  the  introduction  of  slavery  into  "  a  territory  where 
the  laws  of  the  United  States  had  decreed  that  it  might 
go.  It  was  two  years  later  that  an  appeal  was  made 
by  States- Rights  leaders  of  Alabama  in  behalf  of  emi- 
gration to  Kansas.  All  parties  now  stood  shoulder  to 
shoulder  against  the  armed  invasion  of  that  territory 
by  New  England.  Mr.  Yancey  was  appointed  to 
receive  contributions.  Jefferson  Bdford,  a  lawyer  of 
respectability  and  social  standing,  and  a  member  of 
the  Southern  Rights  Association  of  Eufaula,  proceeded 
to  organize  a  company  of  emigrants. 

During  the  first  week  in  April,  1856,  a  body  of 
emigrants  under  command  of  Bjford,  to  the  number  of 
five  hundred,  arrived  at  Montgomery  on  their  journey 
to  Kansas  by  way  of  New  Orleans  and  the  Mississippi 
River.     An  impromptu  reception  of  the  emigrants  by 


348      THE  CRADLE  OP  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

the  citizens  was  held  at  Estelle  Hall.  An  eloquent 
address  was  delivered  by  Alpheus  Baker,  of  Barbour 
county,  who  had  followed  and  animated  by  his  soul- 
stirring  addresses  at  all  resting  points  since  leaving 
Eufaula,  this  body  of  emigrants,  to  whose  care  was 
confided  the  interests  of  the  South  in  the  new  Territory 
of  Kansas.  Mr.  Baker's  speech  occupied  at  least  one 
hour  and  a  half  in  its  delivery,  and  was  hstened  to 
with  profound  attention.  He  dwelt  upon  the  constant 
assaults  made  upon  the  South  by  the  Abolitionists  of 
the  North,  and  the  insidious  means  which  they  em- 
ployed to  deprive  Southerners  of  their  property ;  he 
took  a  cursory  glance  at  the  course  of  injustice  and 
partiality  which  had  fallen  to  the  lot  of  the  South.  He 
considered  Kansas  the  battle-ground  on  which  Southern 
Rights  were  to  be  triumphantly  maintained  or  inglori- 
ously  relinquished.  He  counseled  no  hasty  or  uncon- 
stitutional movements  on  the  part  of  the  South,  but 
urged  a  firm,  determined  spirit  to  "  commit  no  wrong 
"  and  relinquish  no  right."  He  said  the  South  had 
borne,  long  and  patiently,  the  aggressions,  encroach- 
ments, and  haughtiness  of  the  North,  not  because  she 
was  tremulous  for  the  result  should  she  meet  these — 
but  for  the  sake  of  Union.  He  now  considered  it  meet 
and  proper  that  the  South  should  show  her  determina- 
tion to  suffer  persecution  no  longer.  He  called  upon 
the  proverbial  chivalry  of  her  sons,  and  appealed  to 
their  dearest  interests  to  come  up  now^  manfully  to  the 
rescue,  to  stand  by  their  constitutional  rights,  and  to 
maintain  in  all  vigor  the  institutions  to  which  they 
were  accustomed  fi:om  their  infancy.  He  wished  to 
oppose  no  spirit  of  dictation  or  haughtiness  to  the 
North,  but  he  wished  to  see  the  entire  South  united  on 


THE  CRABLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.      349 

the  question,  as  to  whether  the  South  should  maintain 
its  rights  or  surrender  them  at  the  beck  and  call  of 
rampant  fanaticism.  At  the  conclusion  of  his  eloquent 
speech,  Mr.  Baker  was  loudly  applauded. 

On  Saturday,  April  5,  the  emigrants  were  formed  in 
Une  before  the  Madison  House  on  Market  street,  when 
Maj.  Buford  addressed  them,  recommending  an  absti- 
nence from  intoxicating  drinks,  and  a  general  bearing 
such  as  becomes  good  citizens.  At  two  o'clock  p.  m., 
they  marched  to  the  Agricultural  Fair  Grounds,  where 
an  election  for  officers  was  held,  and  the  emigrants  were 
divided  into  companies — Maj.  Buford  being  elected 
General  of  the  battalion. 

A  large  and  enthusiastic  meeting  of  the  citizens  of 
Montgomery  was  held  the  same  night  at  Estelle  Hall, 
to  express  their  approval  of  and  to  aid  the  Kansas 
Emigration  movement.  Calls  were  made  on  several 
distinguished  gentlemen  to  address  the  meeting.  Major 
Buford  delivered  a  dignified  and  stirring  appeal, 
explaining  the  patriotic  motives  which  had  induced  him 
to  engage  in  the  undertaking.  His  address  was 
received  with  great  expressions  of  applause  from  the 
assembly.  He  expressly  declared  that  the  intention  of 
the  emigrating  party  under  his  charge  was  peaceably  to 
settle  Kansas  with  true-hearted  Southern  men;  that 
they  intended  no  acts  of  lawlessness,  or  force,  or  fraud ; 
but  in  the  event  of  an  interference  with  their  rights  by 
the  hired  minions  of  Northern  Freesolism  and  Fanati- 
cism, they  would,  to  the  last  extremity,  defend  them- 
selves and  the  institutions  of  their  choice.  He  said 
that  Kansas  was  the  "  outpost "  which  should  be  now 
defended  by  the  South  if  the  South  intends  to  preserve 
her  institutions  and  her  character. 


350  THE  CBADi;.E  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

Judge  William  P.  Chilton  said  that  it  was  well 
known  that  he  had  always  been  a  "  Union  man,"  that 
he  was  still  a  Union  man,  but  the  crisis  had  arrived 
in  which  he  felt  it  his  duty  not  to  falter,  but  to  maintain 
strictly  every  right  of  the  South,  in  the  Union  if 
possible ;  if  not,  then  out  of  the  Union  !  He  said  that  the 
great  fault  of  the  South  heretofore  had  been  in  compro- 
mising their  rights  for  the  sake  of  peace  and  harmony. 
Such  compromises  had  only  urged  the  North  to  new 
acts  of  aggression ;  henceforth  he  deemed  it  the  duty 
of  the  Southern  States  to  suffer  no  infringement  of  their 
guaranteed  privileges,  but  to  contend  to  the  last 
extremity  for  a  full  and  complete  equaUty  with  their 
Northern  sister  States. 

The  following  resolutions  were  read  by  the  Secretary 
and  unanimously  adopted  by  the  meeting  : 

''  Resolved,  That  our  grateful  thanks  are  tendered 
"  to  the  noble  band  of  emigrants  who  have  so  promptly 
"  responded  to  the  call  made  upon  them  to  march  forth 
"  and  throw  themselves  in  the  breach  in  defence  of 
"  Southern  Rights  and  the  constitutional  privileges  of 
*'  the  South,  and  though  we  hope  their  mission  may  be 
"  a  peaceful  one,  and  not  involve  them  in  an  appeal  to 
^'  arms,  yet  should  Abolition  fiinaticism  force  such  an 
"  issue,  we  wish  them  to  consider  themselves  as  but 
"  the  vanguard  of  the  mighty  hosts  of  their  brethren  of 
"  the  South  who  are  ready  to  march  to  their  relief  and 
"  stand  with  them  in  the  struggle. 

"  Resolved,  That  we  are  satisfied  their  conduct  will 
"  be  governed  by  a  strict  observance  of  all  the  consti- 
"  tutional  laws  of  the  Federal  Government,  and  that  we 
"  deem  it  unnecessary  to  exhort  them  to  oppose,  by 
"  all  the  means  placed  in  their  hands  by  the  God  who 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDEBACT.      351 

"  made  them,  the  least  aggression  on  their  rights  and 
*^  privileges  by  the  base  hirelings  of  Northern  fanat- 
"  icism. 

"  Resolved,  That  the  South  has  made  sacrifices  and 
"  compromises  to  promote  the  harmony,  peace,  and 
"  union  of  these  States  on  divers  occasions,  and  all  such 
"  efforts  have  only  tended  to  encourage  our  adversa- 
"  ries  in  their  lawless  and  fanatical  proceedings,  and  to 
"  urge  them  on  to  repeated  outrages  against  our  char- 
"  acter  and  standing  as  equals  in  the  confederacy  ; 
"therefore,  henceforth  let  there  be  inscribed  on  our 
"  banners,  '  No  Compromise  of  our  Rights,'  but  a  full, 
"  ample  and  entire  equahty  with  all  our  sister  States, 
"  even  at  the  hazard  of  Disunion  and  War  !  " 

On  Sunday  the  entire  battalion  of  Emigrants  re- 
paired to  the  Baptist  Church,  where  they  listened  to 
an  eloquent  sermon  from  the  pastor  of  that  congrega- 
tion. Rev.  Dr.  I.  T.  Tichenor.  At  the  conclusion  of 
the  services  the  Reverend  gentleman  remarked  that, 
inasmuch  as  several  ministers  at  the  North  had  been 
prominent  in  urging  the  necessity  of  sanctifying  and 
civilizing  the  Territory  of  Kansas  by  the  aid  of  Sharpe's 
rifles,  he  hoped  his  congregation  would  aid  him  in  pre- 
senting each  of  the  emigrants  in  Maj.  Buford's  battalion 
with  a  more  potent  weapon,  and  one  much  belter 
calculated  to  bring  about  brotherly  love  and  christian 
charity — a  Bible.  The  congregation  acted  on  the 
suggestion,  and  an  adequate  collection  was  immediately 
taken  up  for  this  object. 

On  Monday  the  battalion  formed  in  line,  and  under 
the  command  of  their  officers  marched  to  the  Baptist 
Church.  The  entire  side-galleries,  and  a  large  portion 
of  the  body  of  the  Church,  were  occupied  by  the  emi- 


352      THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

grants,  while  the  remaining  space  was  filled  by 
spectators,  among  whom  were  many  ladies.  Rev.  Mr. 
Dorman,  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  offered  up 
a  prayer,  asking  that  the  blessings  of  the  Almighty 
might  descend  on  Maj.  Buford  and  his  command,  and 
that  the  enterprise  in  which  they  were  engaged  might 
meet  with  the  approbation  of  Heaven. 

Rev.  Mr.  Tichenor,  in  behalf  of  his  congregation, 
then  presented  Buford  with  a  large-sized  elegant  Bible, 
bearing  an  appropriate  inscription ;  accompanying  the 
presentation  with  an  eloquent  appeal  to  the  feelings, 
patriotism,  and  the  moral  sense  of  the  emigrants  to  walk 
in  the  paths  of  virtue,  and  to  practice  with  assiduity 
the  teachings  contained  in  the  Holy  Word.  He  stated 
that  it  had  been  the  intention  of  the  congregation  to 
present  each  individual  of  them  with  a  copy  of  the 
Scriptures,  but  that  a  sufficient  number  of  copies  could 
not  be  found  in  the  city.  The  sum  sufficient  to  make 
the  purchases  had  been  raised,  which  he  would  confide 
to  Major  Bdford's  care,  in  order  that  he  might,  at  some 
convenient  point  on  his  route,  procure  the  necessary 
copies  and  present  them  to  his  command  on  behalf  of 
the  church.  The  Rev.  gentleman  closed  by  wishing 
them  all  life,  happiness  and  prosperity,  and  hoped  that 
the  blessing  of  God  would  crown  their  endeavors  to 
perpetuate  the  institutions  of  the  South — which  were 
fully  in  accordance  with  the  law  of  God. 

Buford  received  the  Bible  from  the  hands  of  the 
Rev.  speaker,  and,  after  reverently  kissing  it,  replied  on 
behalf  of  the  emigrants  that  all  their  hopes  of  success 
were  founded  on  the  firm  conviction  that  they  were 
right,  and  that  they  were  animated  by  motives  of  pure 


THE    CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.  353 

patriotism  and  a  hearty  desire  for   the  welfare  of  the 
South  and  her  institutions. 

Benediction  was  then  pronounced  by  Rev.  Mr. 
DoRMAN,  and  the  emigrants  marched  to  the  wharf, 
where  the  steamer  Messenger  was  lying  to  take  them 
to  Mobile.  The  crowd  of  spectators  in  attendance  at 
the  wharf  could  not  have  been  less  than  five  thousand 
in  number,  a  large  portion  of  them  ladies.  A  band  of 
colored  musicians  discoursed  exhiliratino  music. 

Arriving  at  the  wharf  they  halted,  and  Hon.  H.  W. 
HiLLiARD  addressed  them  briefly,  setting  forth  the  right 
of  the  Southerners,  relying  for  protection  on  the  Consti- 
tution of  the  country  to  enter  the  Territory  of  Kansas 
with  their  institutions  and  property,  and  to  claim  pro- 
tection therefor  from  the  Federal  Government.  He 
counseled  a  spirit  of  peace  and  conciliation,  to  act  on 
the  defensive — and  remarked  that  he  was  glad  to  see 
them  go  armed  with  the  Word  of  Truth  and  the  Con- 
stitution, rather  than  with  Sharpe's  rifles.  He  avowed 
his  confidence  in  the  success  of  their  mission,  and  felt 
satisfied  that  by  no  act  of  theirs  would  the  South  have 
cause  to  blush  for  those  who  had  taken  upon  themselves 
the  defence  of  her  interests.  Mr.  Hilliard  spoke  from 
a  cotton-bale  He  said  it  was  typical  of  the  supremacy 
of  the  white  race.  Said  he  :  '^  Providence  may  change 
"  our  relations  to  the  inferior  race,  but  the  principle  is 
"  eternal — the  supremacy  of  the  white  race."  Mr. 
Alpheus  Baker  again  spoke  in  his  usual  eloquent 
language.  The  bell  of  the  steamer  rang,  and  the  expe- 
dition departed  amid  the  huzzas  of  a  united  people,  and 
to  the  sound  of  cannon  booming  along  the  bluffs. 

The  National  Whig  party  having  been  broken  to 
pieces  by  the  incessant  agitation  of 'the  questioi^  of 


364      THE  CEADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

slavery  by  its  Northern  wing,  the  conservative  portion  of 
it,  North  and  South,  and  a  portion  of  the  Democratic 
party,  ^which  was  wearied  with  the  "  forcing  issue  " 
policy  of  the  States-Rights  men  who  controlled  the 
Pierce  administration,  now  united  under  cover  of 
secrecy  in  an  organization  which  they  hoped  would 
issue  from  its  cloak,  fully  panoplied,  and  grapple  suc- 
cessfully with  the  grave  problems  of  the  day.  Mr. 
John  M.  Clayton,  who  had  been  Secretary  of  State 
under  President  Taylor,  had  announced  in  1854  that 
this  "  Know  Nothing  "  party  would  refuse  "  to  test 
"  the  suitableness  of  any  man  for  public  office  by  the 
"  question  whether  he  is  for  or  against  the  mere  exten- 
"  sion  of  slavery  in  some  territory  of  the  United  States." 
This  was  satisfactory  to  the  South.  It  was  acquies- 
cence in  the  principle  of  non-intervention  in  the 
territories.  In  June,  1855,  the  party  met  in  National 
Council  at  Philadelphia,  and  laid  down  its  platform. 
Forthwith  the  Whigs  of  the  South  gave  in  their  adhesion 
to  the  organization,  which  now  assumed  the  name 
"  American  Party."  In  Alabama  the  old  Whig  leaders, 
BiJiB,  HiLLiARD,  Chilton,  Watts,  Judge,  Clanton,  Jemi- 
SON,  White,  Langdon,  and  Shortridge  arrayed 
themselves  under  the  new  banner.  It  may  be  asked 
why  these  citizens  were  not  content  to  abide  by  the 
Democratic  party  upon  their  platform  of  1852  ?  They 
recognized  the  justice  of  the  principles  of  the  States- 
Rights  men  ;  why  not  join  their  organization  ?  Why 
maintain  separate  organizations  with  parallel  principles  ? 
The  answer  may  be  found  in  the  June,  1856,  platform 
of  the  National  American  Party  : 

1.  The  Southern  Whigs,  while  admitting  the  princi- 
ples of  the  Kansas  Bill,  charged  the  Democrats,  in  the 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.      355 

language  of  the  first  American  resolution,  with  "  having 
"  elevated  sectional  hostility  into  a  positive  element  of 
"  political  power  and  brought  our  institutions  into 
"  peril."  For  this  reason  they  could  not  repose  confi- 
dence in  a  party  whose  policy,  under  the  leadership  of 
Quitman,  Rhett,  Davis,  and  Yancey,  was  to  follow  Mr. 
Calhoun  and  to  force  the  issue  on  the  North. 

2.  The  American  party  declared  that  it  would  abide 
by  and  maintain  the  existing  laws  upon  the  subject  of 
slavery  as  a  final  and  conclusive  settlement  of  that 
subject.  The  Kansas  Bill  was  then  a  law.  It  also 
declared  that  Congress  ought  not  to  legislate  upon  the 
subject  of  slavery  within  a  territory  of  the  United 
States. 

3.  The  doctrine  that  the  naturalization  laws  should 
be  more  strict,  and  that  foreigners  should  not  be 
allowed  to  vote  until  naturalized,  would  curtail  the  Free 
Soil  vote  and  curb  in  the  West  the  growing  power  of  a 
class  of  citizens  whose  language,  ideas,  and  habits  were 
foreign  to  our  own.  The  Whigs  of  the  South  were 
ready  to  seize  upon  this  as  a  policy  advantageous  to 
the  South^  which  had  not  a  handful  of  foreign-born 
citizens. 

4.  So  far  as  opposition  to  the  Roman  Catholic 
Church  entered  into  the  party,  the  Southern  Wnias 
everywhere  rejected  it,  as  pandering  to  the  lowest 
prejudices  of  bigotry  and  unworthy  of  the  dignity  of  a 
true  repubhcan,  with  whom  liberty  of  conscience  should 
be  as  sacred  as  life  itself  But  in  those  large  cities  of 
the  North  wherever  the  Romish  Church  interfered 
with  secular  affairs,  they  held  that  it  was  a  proper 
subject  for  political  opposition. 

The  Alabama  State  CouucU  of  Americans  met  at 


366      THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

Montgomery,  Nov.  13,  1855.  The  rapid  growth 
throughout  the  country,  and  wonderful  success  in  many 
of  the  States,  of  their  new  party,  as  also  the  conserv- 
ative platform  laid  down  by  the  National  Council  in 
June  had-  delighted  the  more  moderate  people  of  the 
South,  rhey  saw  in  the  'American  party  a  worthy 
successor  of  the  Whig.  But  while  the  Grand  Council 
of  Alabama  was  rejoicing  over  a  new  national  party 
which  appeared  to  be  actually  desirous  of  quieting  the 
slavery  agitation,  the  grand  councils  of  many  of  the 
Northern  States  were  also  in  session  resolving  that  the 
Missouri  Compromise  should  be  restored,  and  that 
unless  it  were  restored  Congress  should  refuse  to  admit 
into  the  Union  any  State  above  that  Hne  which  might 
apply  fo;  admission.  The  Free  Soil  element  had  gained 
access  to.  the  American  party  North,  and  was  now 
ready  to  force  the  party  to  apply  the  Wilmot  Proviso 
to  Kansas  and  Nebraska.  To  the  Southern  Whigs 
the  repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compromise  was  one  thing. 
Its  restoration  at  the  mouth  of  Sharpe  rifles  was  quite 
another  thing.  Therefore  it  was  that  the  Alabama 
American  Convention  resolved  that  the  people  of  all 
the  States  have  an  equal  right  to  enter  and  occupy 
any  territory  with  then*  property,  and  that  they  are 
protected  in  the  enjoyment  of  their  property  there  by 
the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  until  such  time 
as  the  people  may  frame  a  constitution  preparatory  to 
admission  as  a  State.  This  was  the  principle  set  out 
by  the  resolutions  of  Mr.  Yancey  adopted  by  the 
Democratic  Convention  of  Alabama  in  1848,  and 
rejected  by  the  National  Democratic  Convention  of 
that  year.  By  breaking  down  the  barrier  of  the  Com- 
promises which  separated  them,  Mr.  Yancey  now  saw 


Tttfi  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.  35t 

the  Democratic  paity  and  his  old  opponents  of  the 
Whig  party  occupying  the  same  intrenchment,  with 
ranks  almost  touching.  The  American  party  North 
had  not  as  yefc  fully  indicated  that  it  was  being  con- 
trolled by  the  Free  Sellers,  when  the  Americans  of 
Alabama  once  more  met  in  convention,  Feb.  4th,  '56, 
and  re-endorsed  the  position  assumed  by  their  Grand 
Council  in  November. 

Henry  C.  Jones,  of  Franklin  county,  was  President 
of  this  Convention.  Among  its  delegates  were  Bibb, 
Clanton,  Belser,  Parsons,  White,  Jemison,  Jos.  W. 
Taylor,  J.  J.  Hooper,  Benj.  Gardner,  W.  A.  Ashley, 
R.  F.  Inge,  W.  B.  H.  Howard.  Jerome  Clanton,  E.  A. 
Powell,  and  other  distinguished  members  of  the  old 
Whig  party,  besides  a  number  of  those  who  had  here- 
tofore acted  with  the  Democratic  party.  The  over- 
throw of  the  American  party  in  Virginia  by  the  vigor- 
ous canvass  of  Henry  A.  Wise,  had  alarmed  the 
greater  portion  of  the  Democrats  who  had  entered  the 
Know  Nothing  lodges,  and  they  had  beat  a  hasty 
retreat;  but  quite  a  number  still  remained,  and  it 
appeared  quite  probable  that  the  Americans  might 
carry  the  State  of  Alabama.  The  Convention  an- 
nounced the  following  principles  : 

1.  That  the  people  of  all  the  States  have  a  constitur 
tional  right  to  enter  and  occupy  any  of  the  territories, 
as  well  with  their  slaves  as  with  any  other  species  of 
property,  and  are  protected  in  the  enjoyment  of  the 
same  by  the  Constitution  and  the  flag  of  the  country  ; 
and  thalt  neither  Congress  nor  a  territorial  Legislature 
can  legislate  slavery  into  or  out  of  a  territory,  but 
■  must  protect  the  citizens  in  the  enjoyment  of  their 
property  of  whatever  description.  • 


358      THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

2.  That  the  power  to  exclude  slavery  from  a  terri- 
tory resides  only  in  a  convention  of  the  people  when 
assembled  under  an  Act  of  Congress  to  frame  a  consti- 
tution preparatory  to  admission  as  a  State. 

3.  That  the  opposite  doctrine  of  squatter  sovereignty 
is  repudiated. 

4.  That  neither  Congress  nor  a  Territorial  Legisla- 
ture can  enable  unnaturalized  foreigners  to  vote  within 
a  territory  ;  and  that  no  ibreign-born  resident  should 
vote  within  a  State  unless  legally  naturaUzed. 

Addressing  the  Convention  in  support  of  these 
principles,  Mr.  Hilliard  argued  that  the  Kansas- 
Nebraska  Bill  authorized  the  squatters  in  a  territory  to 
exclude  slave  property  whenever  they  chose  to  do  so, 
and  that  this  doctrine  of  squatter  sovereignty  was 
worse  than  the  Wilmot  Proviso.  By  the  exercise  of 
the  Wilmot  Proviso  the  people  would  know  at  the 
outset  that  they  could  not  remove  with  their  slaves  to 
a  territory,  but  by  being  subjected  to  squatter  sover- 
eignty the  tenure  of  their  property  would  be  left  to  the 
accidents  of  the  hour,  and  to  the  whims  of  political 
hirehngs  who  might  be  sent  to  the  territory,  not  as 
actual  residents  and  permanent  citizens,  but  to  accom- 
pHsh  the  success  of  a  certain  political  party.  He 
charged  the  Kansas-Nebraska  Act  with  containing  this 
*  monstrous  principle,  so  unworthy  of  dignified  govern- 
ment, and  the  Democratic  party  with  having  accepted 
it.  It  was  intended,  he  said,  to  please  both  sections  ; 
the  South,  because  it  removed  the  Missouri  fine  and 
enabled  the  slave-holder  to  take  his  slave  to  a«y  of  the 
territories ;  the  North,  because  the  Free  Soil  settlers, 
without^impediment,  could  first  rush  in  and  seize  the 
territorial  government.     The  fact  that  the  Democrats 


tHE  CRADLE  OF  THE  OONFEDERACY.  359 

of  Alabama  had  resolved  that  they  were  opposed  to 
squatter  sovereignty,  was  immaterial.  They  had  so 
resolved  in  1848,  and  their  resolutions  being  rejected 
by  the  National  Convention,  they  had  acquiesced, 
accepted  Mr.  Cass  and  repudiated  Mr.  Yancey.  Not- 
withstanding their  late  State  Convention  had  reaffirmed 
Mr.  Yancey's  resolutions  of  1848,  it  would  be  seen  that 
the  Democratic  party  would  nominate  Mr.  Buchanan, 
whom  Mr.  Yancey  then  denounced,  and  that  Mr.  Bu- 
chanan would  substantially  endorse  the  doctrine  of  Mr. 
Douglas.  The  American  party  deplored  the  removal 
of  the  Missouri  line  as  unnecessary  and  provocative  of 
renewed  sectional  agitation ;  but  being  removed,  noth- 
ing was  left  except  to  plant  themselves  upon  the  clear 
abstract  right  of  holding  slaves  as  other  property  until 
the  Territory,  when  admitted  as  a  State,  should  pro- 
hibit it.  This,  he  felt  satisfied,  was  sound  constitutional 
law,  and  would  be  so  held  by  the  Supreme  Court  of  the 
United  States  in  the  case  then  pending  before  it. 

The  State  American  Convention  had  sent  delegates 
to  a  National  American  Convention  which  was  to 
convene  at  Philadelphia  Feb.  22.  It  was  the  hope  of 
the  Southern  members  of  that  party  that  the  National 
Convention  to  nominate  for  the  Presidency  would  be 
postponed  to  July.  But  the  Northern  members 
insisted  upon  an  earHer  day.  The  Southern  States  had 
but  few  representatives  present,  and  the  controlling 
sentiment  was  for  free  soil.  The  Convention  repudiated 
the  poHcy  of  the  preceding  Convention  of  June,  took 
the  ground  of  the  newly-organized  Republican  party  by 
declaring  opposition  to  the  reckless  and  unwise  policy 
of  the  existing  administration,  and  announced  a  free 
and  open  discussion  of  the  question  of  slavery.     So 


&60      THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERAOY. 

plain  was  the  meaning  of  their  new  platfoi'm,  that  a 
despatch  was  forwarded  to  a  "  Republican "  Conven- 
tion, sitting  at  Pittsburg,  in  this  language  : 

"  The  American  party  is  no  longer  united.  Raise 
"  the  Republican  banner.  Let  there  be  no  lurther 
"  extension  of  slavery.     The  Americans  are  with  you." 

Alexander  White  and  Geo.  D.  ^Shortrtdge,  two  of 
the  delegates  who  had  been  appointed  from  Alabama, 
published  a  letter  protesting  that  the  Philadelphia  Con- 
vention was  not  a  representative  body,  that  it  had  been 
assembled  in  unseemly  haste  and  for  the  purpose  of 
excluding  the  South  ;  that  it  had  planted  itself  on 
sectional  ground  and  abandoned  the  conservative 
position  of  the  former  convention.  There  was  a  moral 
sublimity  in  the  June  platform  ;  there  was  debasement 
for  the  South  in  that  of  February.  Can  we  follow 
them  ?  asked  the  letter.  The  Alabama  party  in  their 
resolutions  had  declare!  that  they  would  not  support 
for  the  Presidency  any  one  who  would  not  publicly  avow 
the  correctness  of  their  views.  It  was  now  time  for  the 
South  to  take  her  destiny  in  her  own  hands.  Messrs. 
White  and  Shortridge  could  not  follow  men  or  a  party 
who  would  not  avow  the  justice  and  maintain  the 
principles  of  the  Alabama  American  platform.  Their 
only  hope  was  that  the  party  would  hold  a  National 
Convention  in  July  and  return  to  the  sound  and  consti- 
tutional position  of  the  National  Council  of  1855. 

Notwithstanding  the  fusion  of  the  Free  Soilers  of  the 
American  party  North  with  the  Republican  party,  there 
was  still  a  large  body  of  conservative  citizens  at  the 
North  who  were  anxious  for  a  cessation  of  sectional 
controversy.  These,  added  to  the  anti-administiation 
vote  of  the  South,  constituted  one-fourth  of  the  entire 


l^HE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.      361 

popular  vote  of  the  Union.  It  was  hoped  and  believed 
that  this  body  of  citizens,  always  devoted  to  the  Union, 
always  anxious  and  willing  to  compromise  questions 
which  involved  no  practical  interest,  always  moderate 
and  conservative  in  fiction  and  expression,  would  form 
a  nucleus  around  which  would  concentrate  a  dominant 
national  party.  These  men  met  at  Baltimore  in  July. 
It  was  a  large  assemblage,  representing  all  parts  of  the 
Union  and  composed  of  persons  of  the  highest  intellect- 
ual attainments  and  moral  worth.  With  great 
unanimity  they  nominated  Mr.  Fillmore  for  the 
Presidency. 

In  August,  1 855,  the  Gubernatorial  election  in  Ala- 
bama had  shown  30.639  votes  for  Judge  Shortridge, 
the  American  candidate  for  Governor,  and  42/238  for 
Winston,  his  Democratic  opponent.  The  vote  for 
Shortridqe  was  twice  that  for  Scott  in  1851.  The 
vote  for  Winston,  was  but  four  thousand  more  than  was 
cast  for  Polk  eleven  years  before.  The  American  vote 
for  Shortridqe  was  the  largest  opposition  vote  that  had 
been  cast  in  the  State  of  Alabama.  It  appeared  from 
this  that  the  dissolution  of  the  Whig  party  in  1 852  had 
not  discouraged  nor  disheartened  th'e  conservatives  of 
the  South.  They  were  more  compact  than  ever 
against  the  agitation  policy  of  Mr.  Yancey  and  the 
States-Rights  party.  Had  the  American  party 
remained  a  national  one,  abided  by  the  platform  of 
June,  1855,  and  had  not  its  Northern  wing  thrown 
itself  into  the  arms  of  the  Free  Soilers  in  February,  '56, 
it  is  probable  that  the  vote  between  Mr.  Buchanan  and 
Mr.  Fillmore  in  Alabama  would  have  been  as  closely 
contested  as  that  between  Gen.  Cass  and  Gen.  Taylor. 

Notwithstanding  the  cloud  that  was  cast  over  the 


362      THE  CRADLE  OP  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

party  South  by  the  action  of  the  PhUadelphia  Con- 
vention of  February,  the  Alabama  Americans  resolved 
to  accept  Mr.  Fillmore  upon  the  strength  of  his  ad- 
ministration and  the  principle  involved  in  the  Compro- 
mise of  1850,  as  announced  in  the  resolutions  of  the 
several  Alabama  American  Conventions. 

Mr.  Yancey,  at  the  Buchanan  ratilScation  meeting 
held  at  Montgomery,  had  said  that  every  generous  and 
just- minded  man  present  would  admit  that  the  Demo- 
crats of  Alabama  had  a  right  to  congratulate  themselves 
on  the  complete  justification  of  the  resolutions  proposed 
by  him  and  adopted  by  the  State  Convention  of  1848. 
The  striking  truth  then  announced  was  so  palpably 
true  as  to  admit  of  no  dispute.  It  was  a  matter  which 
had  so  forced  itself  on  the  attention  of  Southern  Whigs 
as  to  compel  such  men  as  Toombs  and  Stephens,  of 
Ga.,  Benjamin,  of  La.,  Caruthers,  of  Mo.,  Preston,  of 
Ky.,  and  the  Walkers,  Pattons,  Pughs,  and  hosts  of 
other  true  and  gallant  men  of  Alabama  and  elsewhere, 
to  dissever  their  old  party  associations  in  obedience  to 
the  impulses  of  patriotic  duty,  and  ally  themselves  with 
the  Democracy  as  the  only  National  party  possessing 
the  power  and  the  will  to  protect  the  South  and  assure 
the  continuance  of  the  Union  upon  a  constitutional 
basis.  There  can  be  no  question  but  that  Mr.  Yancey 
had  consistently  adhered  to  the  Calhoun  resolutions  of 
1848,  and  that  in  the  spirit  of  Calhoun,  he  had  steadily 
forced  upon  the  Democratic  party  the  doctrine  of  non- 
intervention by  a  territorial  legislature  with  the  institu- 
tion of  slavery.  But  a  large  portion  of  the  Democratic 
party  denied  that  Mr.  Yancey's  construction  of  the 
Cincinnati  non-intervention  resolution  was  correct. 
Recognizing  the  difference  of  opinion  which  existed  as 


THE  CRADLE  OP  THE  CONFEDERACY.      363 

to  the  duty  and  powers  of  a  territorial  government,  Mr. 
Buchanan,  in  his  letter  accepting  the  nomination  for 
the  Presidency,  said  "  that  the  people  of  a  territory, 
like  those  of  a  State,  shall  decide  for  themselves  "  as  to 
the  existence  of  slavery.  This  letter  was  doubtless 
intended  to  meet  the  demands  of  both  sections.  At 
the  North  it  was  construed  to  mean  that  the  people  of 
a  territory  might  legislate  as  to  property  like  those  of 
a  State.  By  the  Southern  Democracy  it  was  construed 
to  mean  that  the  people  of  a  territory  could  decree 
what  was  to  be  property  in  the  same  manner  the 
people  of  a  State  could  make  such  decree,  namely  :  by 
a  properly  assembled  convention. 

Seizing  this  expression  of  Mr.  Buchanan,  the  Ameri- 
can speakers  in  Alabama  contended  that  Mr.  Yancey's 
construction  was  wrong,  and  that  the  Northern  De- 
mocracy were  intent  upon  leaving  to  the  will  of  the 
first  squatters  of  a  territory  the  exclusion  of  Southern 
property.  If,  said  they,  this  is  the  conclusion  of  the 
whole  matter,  why  was  the  Missouri  line  disturbed,  and 
why  was  sectional  agitation  once  more  renewed  ?  They 
maintained  that  the  American  resolutions  of  the 
National  Council  of  June,  1855,  and  the  Alabama  reso- 
lutions of  the  February  following,  expressed  the  true 
position  gf  the  American  party.  They  held  that,  as 
between  the  Free  Soil  Whig  party  of  the  North,  and 
the  States-Rights  Secession  party  of  the  South,  the 
American  party  stood,  the  only  national  one  which  could 
give  peace  to  the  country  and  perpetuity  to  the  Union. 
The  American  party  had  decided  to  abide  by  the 
existing  laws.  It  had  declared  that  Congress  could 
not  exclude  a  State  from  admission  to  the  Union 
because    of  the  existence  of  slavery.     It  is  true  the 


S64      THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

National  Council  had  pretermitted  any  expression  of 
opinion  as  to  the  power  of  Congress  to  establish  or  pro- 
hibit slavery  in  any  territory,  but  they  had  declared 
that  Congress  ought  not  to  legislate  upon  that  subject. 
Thus  while  Mr.  Yancey  and  his  friends  denied  the 
power  of  Congress,  the  Americans  held  that  the  higher 
motive  of  moral  obligation  should  induce  Congress  to 
refrain  from  all  attempts  to  exeroise  the  power.  The 
constitutional  obligation  might  be  in  doubt,  as  thought 
one  wing  of  the  Democracy ;  but  with  the  Americans 
there  was  no  doubt  as  to  the  moral  obligation. 

The  political  elements  which  entered  into  the  Presi- 
dential contest,  were  as  follows  : 

1.  The  Republican  party,  solid  and  compact,  in  favor 
of  the  power  and  duty  of  Congress  to  prohibit  slavery 
in  the  Territories.  This  party  lacked  only  the  vote  of 
Pennsylvania  to  carry  Fremont  into  the  Presidency. 

2.  The  Northern  Democracy,  giving  a  squatter  sov- 
ereignty construction  to  Mr.  Buchanan's  letter  of 
acceptance,  just  as  Mr.  Yancey,  in  1848,  had  given  a 
similar  construction  to  his  Berk's  county  letter.  This 
element,  while  unable  to  give  an  electoral  vote  in  pro- 
portion to  its  numbers,  constituted  two-thirds  of  the 
entire  Democratic  population. 

3.  The  Southern  Democracy,  now  controlled  by  the 
successors  of  Mr.  (  'alhodn,  and  construing  the  accept- 
ance of  Mr.  Buchanan  and  the  Cincinnati  platform  to 
mean  non-intervention  both  by  Congress  and  its  agent, 
the  territorial  legislature.  This  element,  while  consti- 
tuting but  one-third  of  the  Democratic  popular 
strength,  was  able  to  control  four-fifths  of  the  probable 
Democratic  electoral  votes. 

4.  The  American  party,  which,  in  the  North,  evaded 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  OONPEDERAOY.      365 

the  question  of  slavery,  and  which,  in  the  South  was 
divided  between  those  who,  while  not  denying  the 
power  of  Congress  to  prohibit  slavery  in  the  Territories, 
contended  that  the  existing  legislation  on  the  subject 
should  be  abided  by  as  a  final  settlement,  and  those 
who  denied  such  a  power  to  Congress  and  insisted  on 
congressional  protection  to  slaves  until  the  territory  be- 
came a  State.  Both  sections  of  the  party.  South,  agreed 
that  the  present  laws  should  be  carried  out,  and  that 
the  constitutionality  of  the  question  should  be  left  to 
the  decision  of  the  Supreme  Court.  This  party  at  the 
South  was  able  to  poll  against  the  Democracy  more 
than  one  hundred  thousand  more  votes  than  were  cast 
for  Gen.  Scott,  and  nearly  fifty  thousand  more  than 
were  cast  for  Gen.  Taylor. 


CHAPTER    XIV. 


The  Bred  Scott  Decision — Condition  of  Parties  in  1868 
— The  Irrepressible  Conflict — The  John  Brown  Raid 
— Leagues  of  United  Southerners — The  Southern 
Commercial  Convention — Bebate  bettveen  Yancey  and 
Pryor — Precipitating  the  Cotton  States  into  Revolu- 
tion, (&C.,  &c. 


'*  Free  labor  and  slave  labor,  these  antagonistic  systems,  are  oon- 
tinually  coining  into  close  contact,  and  collision  results.  Shall  I  tell 
you  what  this  collision  means?  They  who  think  it  is  accidental,  un- 
necessary, the  work  of  interested  or  fanatical  agitators,  and  therefore 
ephemeral,  mistake  the  case  altogether.  It  is  an  irrepressible  conflict 
between  opposing  and  enduring  forces,  and  it  means  that  the 
United  States  must  and  will,  sooner  or  later,  become  either  entirely  a 
slave-holding  nation  or  entirely  a  free-labor  nation." 

W.  H.  SkwAed,  in  1858. 

"  Our  own  banner  is  inscribed ;  *  No  co-operation  with  slave-hold- 
ers in  politics:  no  fellowship  with  them  in  religion:  no  affiliation 
with  them  in  society :  no  recognition  of  pro-slavery  men,  except  as 
ruffians,  outlaws  and  criminals.'  "  Impending  Cbisis. 

"  As  long  as  the  blood-stained  Union  exists,  there  is  but  little  hops 
for  the  slave." 

W.  L.  Garrison,  at  New  York,  1857. 


At  the  time  when  the  Whigs  of  Alabama  in  their 
support  of  Mr.  Fillmore,  had  asserted  the  ris^ht  of  the 
people  of  any  State  to  remove  to  and  hold  within  a 
territory  any  species  of  property,  subject  to  the  decis- 
ion of  the  people  of  the  territory,  through  a  constitu- 
tion framed  as  preliminary  to  their  admittance  as  a 
State,  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  had 
pending  before  them  a  case  (Dred  Scott  vs.  Sandford, 
19  Howard's  Reports,  p.  393,)  involving  all  the  con- 
tested questions  in  regard  to  slavery.      Two  days  after 


368      THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

Mr.  Buchanan's  inauguration,  a  decision  was  announced 
upon  this  case  which  affirmed  the  correctness  of  the 
Alabama  American  platform.  It  established  the  prop- 
osition that  the  Federal  Government  could  not  interfere 
with  the  possession  of  slave  property  in  a  slave  terri- 
tory, and  could  not  authorize  the  local  government  to 
do  so,  and  that  it  was  the  duty  of  the  Government  to 
protect  such  property  there.  The  Republican  party 
denied  the  binding  force  of  this  decision.  Although 
composed  principally  of  Northern  Whigs  who  applaud- 
ed Mr.  Webster  when  he  named  the  Supreme  ( -ourt  as 
the  arbiter  in  disputes  concerning  constructions  of  the 
Constitution,  they  now  found  it  convenient  to  reject 
that  arbitration.  They,  together  with  the  adherents  of 
Mr.  Douglas,  held  that  the  Court  could  pass  simply 
upo9  each  case  as  it  came  before  them,  and  could  not 
lay  down  a  general  principle  which  would  bind  the 
political  department  of  the  Government.  The  Douglas 
Democracy  in  thus  rejecting  the  umpirage  of  the 
Supreme  Court  were  undoubtedly  in  accord  with  the 
views  of  Hayne,  Van  Buren,  Calhoun  and  other  lea- 
ders of  the  Democratic  party  of  the  preceding  genera- 
tion. The  Buchanan  Democracy  could  not,  with  con- 
sistency, claim  the  Dred  Scott  decision  as  strengthen- 
ing their  case.  They  had,  theretofore,  uniformly  declared 
that  the  dignity  of  the  States  would  not  permit  the 
decision  of  constitutional  questions  to  rest  with  a  Fed- 
eral Court.  For  the  pui-pose  of  advancing  their  party 
interests,  the  Northern  Whigs  and  Southern  Democrats, 
the  extreme  Free  Soilers  and  the  extreme  States-Rights 
men,  at  this  point  reversed  their  positions.  The  party 
that  had  once  spurned  the  idea  of  listening  to  the 
Supreme  Court  upon  political  questions,  now  emblazon- 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.      369 

ed  the  Dred  Scott  decision  upon  its  flag,  and  the  party 
which  had  invariably  appealed  to  th,e  Court  in  the 
days  of  Marshall  now  rejected  it  with  loathing  and 
hate  in  the  days  of  Yancey.  The  Whig  party  of  the 
South  alone  maintained  its  ancient  land-marks.  Inher- 
iting the  traditions  of  1830  and  of  1840,  it  still 
adhered  to  the  faith  of  Webster  and  Clay,  and  bowed 
to  the  decision  of  the  Court.  They  still  held  that  the 
Constitution,  and  the  laws  made  in  pursuance  thereof, 
were  the  supreme  laws  of  the  land,  and  that  the 
Supreme  Court  could  alone  decide  whether  a  law  was 
made  in  pursuance  to  the  Constitution. 

All  of  the  Compromises  of  the  Constitution  having 
been  rejected,  and  the  Supreme  Tribunal  having  now 
announced  its  decision  upon  the  grave  question  of  the 
day,  the  Whigs  of  Alabama  had  no  further  point  of 
dispute  with  their  adversaries  upon  matters  growing  out 
of  slavery.  They  still,  however,  held  themselves  in 
solid  array  against  the  Democracy  upon  the  ground 
that  the  Territorial  question  was  an  impracticable  one, 
upon  which  the  continuance  of  the  Union  should  not 
be  staked,  and  that  the  States-Rights  leaders  who  now 
held  unbounded  sway  in  the  Democratic  ranks,  had 
come  to  the  conclusion  that  secession  should  be  resorted 
to  without  awaiting  any  further  overt  act  than  the 
Conference  BUI,  under  which  Kansas  was  virtually 
refused  admittance  with  her  Lecompton  Constitution. 
So  determined  was  this  array  that  in  the  election  for 
Congressman  in  the  Montgomery  District,  as  late  as 
November,  1858,  Mr.  Judge,  who  has  been  already 
alluded  to  as  a  prominent  leader  of  the  Whigs,  failed  of 
an  election  by  only  two  hundred  and  fourteen  votes  in 
a  poll  of  more  than  thirteen  thousand.    Referring  to 


370      THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

this  election,  it  is  worthy  of  note  that  the  large  slave- 
holding  counties  of  the  District  gave  majorities  for  Mr. 
Judge,  notwithstanding  the  newspapers  charged  him 
with  want  of  fealty  to  the  institution  of  slavery  in  voting 
at  the  Nashville  Convention  to  accept  the  Compromise 
of  1850,  and  in  publishing  the  card  relative  to  the 
right  of  secession,  to  which  reference  has  already  been 
made  in  a  preceding  chapter.  The  charge  of  disloyalty 
to  the  South  thus  preferred  against  Mr.  Judge  by  the 
Montgomery  Advertiser  and  other  Democratic  newspa- 
pers, did  not  prevent  the  people  from  casting  for  him 
6,666  votes,  against  6,880  votes  for  Mr.  Clopton,  his 
competitor.  The  counties  most  largely  interested  in 
slavery,  and  possibly  in  the  extension  of  slavery  to 
Kansas  and  Nebraska,  voted  for  Mr.  Judge.  He  was 
defeated  by  the  votes  of  those  counties  which  were  the 
least  interested  in  that  subject.  Thus  firm  and  unbro- 
ken was  the  front  maintained  against  the  Democratic 
party  around  the  home  of  Yancey  and  the  cradle  of  the 
Confederacy.  Such  was  the  conflict,  not  of  principle, 
but  of  sentiment  and  temper,  in  one  of  the  largest 
slave-holding  Districts  of  the  South,  inhabited  by  a 
population  wealthy,  high-spirited,  and  intelhgent — a 
conflict  which  would,  by  nicely  balancing  the  power  of 
the  disputants,  have  preserved  the  Union  for  an  indefi- 
nite period — when  suddenly  occurred  a  series  of  events 
which  paralyzed  the  labors  of  men  like  Watts,  Judge, 
Langdon,  and  Clanton,  and  struck  the  South  with  such 
alarm  and  indignation  as  to  add  intensity  to  the  secession 
movement  which  had  now  once  more  assumed  definite 
shape. 

These  events  were  :  1.  The  announcement  by  Senator 
SEWARD,  the  leader  of  the  Eepublican  party,  that  an 


THE    CRADLE  OF  THE  CO]SFEDEEACY.  371 

irrepressible  conflict  existed  between  the  North  and 
South,  a  conflict  which  must  eventually  give  free  labor 
to  the  South ;  2.  The  endorsement  by  Mr.  Greeley, 
Mr.  Seward,  and  all  the  Republican  leaders,  of  a  book 
published  by  a  charlatan,  entitled  "  Impending  Crisis," 
which  advised  the  opponents  of  slavery  "  to  land  military 
"forces  in  the  Southern  States  who  shall  raise  the 
"  standard  of  freedom  and  call  the  slaves  to  it,"  and  to 
"  teach  the  slaves  to  burn  their  masters'  buildings,  to 
"  kill  their  cattle  and  hogs,  to  conceal  and  destroy 
"  farming  utensils,  to  abandon  labor  in  seed-time  and 
*'  harvest  and  let  the  crops  perish  ";  3.  The  invasion 
of  Virginia  and  the  emeute  at  Harper's  Ferry  by  John 
Brown  and  his  Abolition  force. 

Cotemporaneously  with  these  events,  which  did  more 
to  fire  the  Southern  heart  than  all  the  speeches  of 
States-Rights  leaders,  was  the  meeting  of  the  Southern 
Commercial  Convention  at  Montgomery,  and  the  organ- 
ization of  Leagues  of  united  Southerners  to  take  the 
place  of  the  old  States-Rights  Associations. 

A  Southern  Commercial  Convention  held  at  Knox- 
ville,  in  August,  1857,  had  appointed  a  committee,  of 
which  L.  W.  Spratt,  of  S.  C,  was  chairman,  to  prepare 
business  for  the  next  meeting,  covering  these  questions  : 
1 .  The  African  slave  trade ;  2.  The  political  relations 
of  the  South  to  the  Union;  and,  3.  The  foreign  policy 
the  South  should  advocate. 

The  next  meeting  of  the  Convention  was  held  at. 
Montgomery,  May  10,  1858.  The  welcoming  address 
was  made  by  Mr.  Yancey  on  behalf  of  the  Mayor  and 
Council  of  Montgomery.     He  said : 

"  I  must  be  allowed,  at  least  on  my  own  behalf  to 
"  welcome  you,  too,  as  but  the  foreshadowing  of  that 


372      THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONPEDERACY. 

"  far  more  important  body,  important  as  you  evidently 
"  will  be,  that,  if  injustice  and  wrong  shall  still  continue 
"  to  rule  the  hour  and  councils  of  the  dominant  section 
"of  this  country,  must,  ere  long,  assemble  upon 
"  Southern  soil,  for  the  purpose  of  devising  some 
"  measures  by  which  not  only  your  industrial,  but  your 
"  social  and  your  political  relations  shall  be  placed  upon 
"  the  basis  of  an  independent  sovereignty,  which  will 
"  have  within  itself  a  unity  of  climate,  a  unity  of  soil,  a 
"  unity  of  production,  and  a  unity  of  social  relations ; 
"  that  unity  which  alone  can  be  the  basis  of  a  successful 
"  and  permanent  government."     [Loud  applause.] 

Among  the  members  of  the  Convention  were  men 
whose  names  had  been  long  familiar  to  the  public, 
some  of  the  leading  intellects  of  the  South.  There  were 
Calhoun  and  Hayne,  of  S.  C,  able  representatives  of 
their  distinguished  kinsmen  who  had  passed  away  ; 
Preston  and  Pryor,  of  Va. ;  Hill  and  Lamar,  of  Ga. ; 
Breckinridge  and  White,  of  La.;  McRae  and  Dunn, 
of  Miss. ;  Chase  and  Brevard,  of  Fla.  From  Alabama 
were  seen  the  faces  of  Yancey,  Hilliard,  Clanton, 
Cochran,  Lea,  Walker,  Belser,  Bethea,  and  many 
others  of  distinction.  A.  P.  Calhoun,  of  S.  C,  was 
elected  President.  Mr.  Spratt  submitted  to  the  Con- 
vention an  elaborate  report  touching  the  questions  sub- 
mitted at  the  last  session  of  the  Convention,  and 
recommended  the  adoption  of  the  following  resolutions  : 

"  L  That  slavery  is  right,  and  that  being  right,  there 
"  can  be  no  wrong  in  the  natural  means  to  its  formation. 

"  2.  That  it  is  expedient  and  proper  the  Foreign 
"  i^lave  Trade  should  be  re-opened,  and  that  this  Con- 
"  vention  will  lend  its  influence  to  any  legitimate 
"  measure  to  that  end. 

"  3.  That  a  committee,  consisting  of  one  from  each 


THE  CRABLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.      3lS 

"  slave  State,  be  appointed  to  consider  of  the  means, 
"  consistent  with  the  duty  and  obligations  of  these 
"  States,  for  re-opening  the  Foreign  Slave  Trade,  and 
"  that  they  report  their  plan  to  the  next  meeting  of 
^'  this  Convention." 

Mr.  Roger  A.  Pryok,  of  Virginia,  stated  that 
although  a  member  of  the  committee  from  whence  this 
report  purports  to  come,  yet  he  had  not  seen.it,  nor 
had  he  heard  any  of  its  arguments  or  conclusions  until 
it  was  read  to  the  convention.  He  therefore  hoped  the 
convention  would  indulge  him  by  giving  him  an  oppor- 
tunity to  prepare  and  present  to  the  convention  the 
arguments  founded  upon  considerations  of  high  State 
policy,  of  eminently  high  Southern  poUcy,  which  would 
forbid  this  convention,  which  purports  to  represent  the 
interests  of  the  South,  from  embarking  in  so  serious  an 
enterprise  as  that  of  proclaiming  before  Christendom 
that  they  now  intend  to  insist  upon  re-opening  the 
trade  in  African  slaves. 

Mr.  Yancey,  of  Alabama,  said  he,  also  was  a  member 
of  the  committee  from  which  this  report  comes,  and 
from  circumstances  beyond  his  control,  he  had  not  seen 
it.  But  from  what  he  had  heard  of  it,  as  it  was  read, 
he  was  free  to  confess  that  he  gave  it  his  most  hearty 
concurrence.  There  might  be  some  things  in  it  to 
which  he  could  not  give  his  consent. 

The  question  recurring  on  the  following  day,  Mr. 
Pryor  addressed  the  convention  at  length.  He  dif- 
fered from  the  gentleman  from  South  Carolina  (Mr. 
Spratt)  in  his  argument  that  the  diffusion  of  slavery 
strengthened  it.  Diffusion  is  not  strength  ;  but,  on 
the  contrary,  concentration  is  strength.  It  was  not  the 
opinion  of  Thomas   Jefferson   that   diffusing  slavery 


3Y4      THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

strengthened  it.  While  he  admu'ed  the  genius  and 
patriotism  of  Jefferson,  he  must,  at  the  same  time,  con- 
fess, with  humihation  and  shame,  that  he  was  the  most 
intelligent  adversary  of  slavery  that  the  world  has  ever^ 
produced.  But  he  offered  the  Missouri  restriction 
because,  by  using  his  own  words,  "by  diffusing  the 
"  institution  of  slavery  you  weakened  it."  Look  at 
Missouri,  where  slavery  is  very  much  diflfused,  and' 
then  at  South  Carolina,  where  it  is  more  concentrated 
than  in  any  other  State  in  this  Confederacy,  and  then 
say  where  the  institution  of  slavery  has  the  most 
strength. 

The  policy  advocated  in  this  report  is  and  ought  to 
be  impracticable.  We  are  committed  by  the  action  of 
our  forefathers  to  give  the  Federal  Government  un- 
conditional and  absolute  control  over  the  African 
slave  trade.  The  gentleman  from  South  Carolina  can- 
not expect  to  get  the  Federal  Government  to  open  that 
trade.  No  sensible  man  here  believes  that  that  will 
ever  be  done  under  any  circumstances,  for  the  North 
has  complete  control  of  the  legislative  and  executive 
departments  of  the  Government.  Does  the  gentleman 
propose  to  open  the  trade  by  action  of  the  several 
Southern  States  ?  That  would  be  an  act  of  bad  faith, 
for  we  have  agreed  to  the  Constitution  of  this  country, 
and  as  long  as  we  remain  in  the  Union,  we  must 
uphold  that  Constitution.  It  is  what  we  require  of 
others,  and  let  us,  like  honorable  men,  do  the  same 
thing  ourselves. 

Another  objection  to  the  agitation  of  this  subject, 
said  -Vir.  Pryor,  is  that  by  committing  ourselves  to  this 
policy  we  sacrifice  our  friends  at  the  North,  and  the 
National  Democratic  party  in  the  North.     It  was  that 


THE  CRADLE  OF  TttE  CONFEDERACY.  375 

Democratic  party  which  affected  an  amelioration  in  the 
financial  system  of  this  Government ;  which  redeemed 
the  country  from  the  oppression  of  a  National  Bank ; 
which  has  extended  the  area  of  the  Union  by  the 
acquisition  of  Florida,  Texas,  and  California.  His 
memories  of  that  party  appealed  to  his  heart  not  rudely 
and  ruthlessly  to  sacrifice  it.  There  are  members  of 
that  party  in  the  North  that  he  was  unwilHng  to 
consign  to  irretrievable  perdition  and  destruction  by 
imposing  upon  them  a  test  they  cannot  be  expected  to 
stand.  He  would  rather,  in  an  excess  of  generosity  and 
magnanimity,  sacrifice  some  of  his  own  feelings  and 
rights  than  to  sacrifice  those  who  have  stood  by  us  in 
our  hour  of  need.  It  was  utterly  impossible  for  any 
Northern  man,  however  faithful  to  the  interests  of  the 
South,  to  advocate  the  revival  of  the  African  slave 
trade.  There  were  exceptional  cases,  anomalies  in 
nature,  lusus  natures,  like  the  editor  of  the  Dai/  Book, 
but  he  was  but  an  exception.  The  gentleman  from 
Alabama  (Mr.  Yancey)  said  yesterday — whether  he 
intended  it  as  a  compliment  or  a  reproach — said  that 
the  National  Democratic  party  was  the  only  ligament 
that  united  the  North  and  South,  and  he  was  unwilling 
to  sacrifice  it. 

This  proposition,  if  endorsed,  would  shock  the  moral 
sentiment  of  Christendom.  Some  may  say  that  they 
do  not  care  for  that.  But  we  of  the  South  who  profess 
to  be  Christians  should  endeavor,  if  possible,  without 
sacrificing  rights,  to  seek  rather  to  propitiate  the  moral 
sentiment  of  Christendom.  He  was  not  willing  to 
throw  the  gauntlet  in  the  face  of  the  Christian  world. 
He    was   very   much   governed  by    considerations  of 


376      THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

policy.  And  the  sentiment  of  the  Christian  world  was 
gradually  coming  around  to  one  standpoint. 

Look  at  England  with  her  Coolies,  and  France  with 
her  apprentices.  The  despatch  from  our  Minister  to 
France  shows  a  gradual  amelioration  in  sentiment  upon 
this  subject.  We  should  bide  our  time,  and  not,  by 
this  public  action,  give  our  institutions  an  irretrievable 
recoil.  Quieta  non  movere.  Allow  things  to  go  along 
smoothly. 

He  objected  to  the  introduction  of  a  horde  of  barba- 
rians from  Africa  among  us.  That  was  incompatible 
with  the  present  status  of  slavery  here.  Ours  is  a 
patriarchal  institution  now,  founded  in  pity  and  pro- 
tection on  the  one  side,  and  dependence  and  gratitude 
on  the  other.  It  would  become  under  this  policy  Uke 
slavery  in  Cuba,  where  the  master  is  forced  to  be  cruel 
and  stern  in  his  government  and  control  of  slavery. 
It  would  create  a  new  grade  of  slavery,  and  create  in 
the  slaves  we  already  have  a  feeling  of  superiority  that 
we  should  avoid. 

In  short,  this  proposition  to  revive  the  African  Slave 
Trade  was  purely  and  simply  a  proposition  to  dissolve 
the  Union,  because  it  cannot  be  carried  out  while  the 
Union  lasts.  When  that  proposition  is  boldly  and 
openly  made,  Virginia,  though  a  border  State,  would 
not  shrink  from  her  duty.  But  Virginia  was  unwilling 
to  put  the  perpetuity  of  this  Union  upon  any  such 
issue  as  this  proposition  to  kidnap  cannibals  upon  the 
coast  of  Congo  and  contend  with  the  King  of  Dahomey 
in  the  marts  of  wild  Africa  for  the  purchase  of  slaves 
there.  If  you  intend  dissolution,  declare  it  boldly  and 
manfully.  [Applause.]  Present  your  proposition  with 
yOur  preamble  and  resolutions,  and  we  will  meet  you 


I^HE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.      377 

upon  it,  and  either  acquiesce  and  go  with  you  heartily 
and  zealously,  or  give  our  reasons  for  not  doing  so. 

Mr.  John  A.  Jones,  of  Georgia — Will  the  gentleman 
go,  go  now,  to-day,  for  a  dissolution  of  the  Union  ? 
[Applause.] 

Mr.  Pryor — I  am  not  going  to  take  a  position 
outside  of  the  Union  until  I  can  go  with  a  united  South. 
Give  me  a  case  of  oppression  and  tyranny  sufficient  to 
justify  a  dissolution  of  the  Union,  and  give  me  a  united 
South,  and  then  I  am  willing  to  go  out  of  the  Union. 
[Applause.] 

Mr.  Jones — If  the  gentleman  waits  for  an  undivided 
South  he  never  will  go  out  of  the  Union. 

Mr.  Pryor — I  will  not  so  stigmatize  any  State  or 
any  class  of  my  fellow  citizens  by  behoving  that  when  a 
case  arises  sufficient  to  justify  a  dissolution  of  the 
Union,  any  State  of  the  South  will  stand  back.  In  no 
crisis  has  the  Old  Dominion  ever  been  recreant  to  her 
duty.  When  the  ball  of  the  revolution  was  set  in 
motion  in  1774,  Virginia  was  not  behind.  When 
*  Jackson  desired  to  send  the  Federal  troops  to  crush 
out  South  Carohna,  Virginia  was  not  recreant  to  her 
duty.  [Applause.]  But  recollect  that  the  first  onset, 
in  case  of  revolution,  must  be  met  by  Virginia,  and 
gentlemen  must  not  expect  of  her  an  inordinate  enthu- 
siasm that  may  be  felt  by  others  not  situated  as  she  is. 
But  take  my  word  for  it,  Virginia  will  not  disparage 
the  memory  of  her  illustrious  heroes,  and  abdicate  the 
proud  position  she  now  occupies  in  the  annals  of  our 
country.  The  true  position  of  the  South  was  the 
position  of  defence.  We  claim  nothing  but  our  rights, 
nothing  more  than  our  forefathers  guaranteed  to  us, 
and  so  help  us  God,  Virginia  will  never  take  less  than 


378      THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONPEDERACY. 

that.  If  there  is  to  be  a  disseverance  of  the  Union,  let 
there  be  no  disseverance  of  the  South.  Believe  the 
border  States  true  and  loyal ;  recollect  that  suspicion 
begets  resentment.  Let  us  collect  our  energies  for  the 
final  struggle,  so  that  when  it  comes,  the  entire  South 
may  precipitate  herself  upon  the  foe,  like  a  thunderbolt 
from  Heaven,  with  irresistible  effect. 

This  speech  of  Mr.  Pryor  was  received  with  great 
favor  by  that  portion  of  the  immense  audience  which 
was  opposed  to  a  disruption  of  the  Democratic  party 
and  to  forcing  issues  upon  the  people  of  the  North. 
The  applause  which  greeted  his  resistance  to  the  new 
proposition  of  the  States-Rights  leaders,  the  opening 
of  the  African  slave  trade  had  barely  died  away  when 
Mr.  Yancey  obtained  the  floor.  He  said  that  he  had, 
under  the  circumstances,  considered  it  advisable  to 
prepare  a  report  embodying  his  views,  which  he  would 
submit  to  the  Convention.  He  then  proceeded  to 
read  his  report,  which  concluded  with  the  following 
resolution : 

''Resolved,  That  the  laws  of  Congress  prohibiting  * 
"  the  foreign  slave  trade  ought  to  be  repealed." 

Mr.  Yancey  said  that  he  supposed  that  the 
gist  of  the  remarks  of  the  gentleman  from  Virginia 
(Mr.  Pryor)  was  to  be  found,  like  the  impor- 
tant part  of  a  lady's  letter,  in  the  postscript.  He  sup- 
posed the  true  reason  for  his  opposition  to  the  report  of 
the  committee  was  to  be  found  in  the  latter  part  of 
his  speech,  the  effect  that  it  would  have  upon  our 
friends  at  the  North.  God  save  us  from  such  friends. 
Have  their  fidelity  and  friendship  been  exhibited  in  the 
recent  passage  of  the  Conference  Bill  concerning 
Kansas  ?     And  yet  we  are  told  in  a  Southern  Con- 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.      379 

vention  to  reflect  before  we  assert  our  undoubted  right, 
upon  the  effect  it  will  have  upon  our  Northern  allies. 
Are  we  never  to  give  an  open,  manly,  frank  avowal  of 
our  constitutional  position  in  the  Union,  or  must  we 
depend  upon  a  mere  subterfuge,  in  regard  to  the 
meaning  of  which  there  are  a  half  a  dozen  difierent 
opinions  ?  Then,  unlike  the  gentleman  from  Virginia, 
he  was  for  disunion  now.  [Applause.]  He  would 
shed  his  blood  to  save  the  Union  as  our  fathers  left  it, 
but  not  the  Union  which  has  been  reared  upon  its  ruins. 
The  Union  of  our  fathers  has  already  been  dissolved  by 
oppression  and  fraud,  and  there  was  no  drop  of  blood 
in  his  heart  that  he  was  not  ready  to  shed  in  defence 
of  Southern  rights  against  that  Union.     [Applause.] 

What  wa.s  the  measure  recommended  to  the  Con- 
vention? The  repeal  of  a  law  which  discriminates 
against  the  labor  of  the  South.  Is  there  an  Alabamian 
here  who  does  not  endorse  that  sentiment  ?  Is  there 
a  Virginian  here  who  does  not  endorse  it  ?  The  Gen- 
eral Government  has  no  right  to  discriminate  against 
us.  The  Constitution  does  not  authorize  it.  It  says  : 
"  Congress  shall  enact  no  law  prohibiting  the  emigra- 
"  tion  or  importation  of  such  persons  as  the  States  now 
"allow  before  the  year  1808."  That  very  clause 
was  a  constitutional  guarantee  of  slavery  and  the  slave- 
trade,  because  it  forbid  Congress  to  interfere  with  it 
before  1808.  In  1807  a  law  was  passed  that  after 
1808  no  slaves  should  be  imported  into  this  Union, 
which  law  was  unconstitutional  in  its  discrimination 
against  the  South. 

In  1807  the  slave  trade  was  declared  a  misdemeanor. 
In  1820  it  was  declared  piracy.  And  yet  we  must 
not  demand  the  repeal  of  these  discriminating  laws  for 


380      THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

fear  we  may  offend  our  Northern  allies,  and  perchance 
defeat  some  asph-ant  for  the  Presidency.  TJae  gentle- 
man from  Virginia  refers  to  the  opinions  of  Christen- 
dom upon  this  subject — they  are  rather  the  opinions  of 
devildom.  The  great  advocates  of  what  is  called 
Christendom  have  met  in  convention  in  the  Northern 
States  and  voted  if  the  Bible  recognized  slavery,  it  was 
the  work  of  the  devil  rather  than  of  God.  And  New 
England  male  and  female  teachers  and  parents  have 
endeavored  to  impress  upon  the  minds  of  the  youth 
there  that  God  himself  should  be  dethroned  if  he  recog- 
nized African  slavery. 

Now,  if  it  is  wrong  to  hold  slaves  and  to  buy  them 
and  sell  them,  it  is  right  in  morals  and  under  the  Con- 
stitution which  guarantees  the  institution,  that  we 
should  buy  them  in  whatever  place  we  may  choose  to 
select.  He  did  not  wish  to  be  compelled  to  n  go  to 
Virginia  and  buy  slaves  for  $1,500  each,  when  he 
could  get  them  in  Cuba  for  $600,  or  upon  the  coast  of 
Guinea  for  one-sixth  of  that  sum. 

As  to  the  reduction  in  the  value  of  land  by  the 
re-opening  of  the  slave  trade,  he  would  ask  why  the 
land  in  the  South,  though  as-  rich  and  fertile  as  any 
in  the  world,  brought  less  in  the  market  than  the  com- 
paratively sterile  lands  of  New  England  and  New  York  ? 
It  was  because  the  South  lacked  the  supply  of  labor 
necessary  to  cultivate  her  land,  while  in  the  North  the 
land  was  not  enough  for  the  supply  of  labor. 

There  is  no  amount  of  ingenious  reasoning,  no  clap- 
trap of  words,  no  trick  in  language  that  can  do  away 
with  the  great  law  that  if  you  increase  the  number  of 
slave  owners  you  increase  the  basis  of  the  institution. 
There  is  no  denying  that  there  is  a  large  emancipating 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONEEDEEACY.      381 

interest  in  Virginia,  and  Kentucky,  and  Maryland,  and 
Missouri,  the  fruits  of  which  we  see  in  Henry  Winter 
Davis,  Cassius  M.  Clay,  and  Thomas  H.  Benton.  We 
need  to  strengthen  this  institution ;  and  how  better  can 
we  do  that  than  by  showing  the  non-slave-holding  class 
of  our  citizens  that  they  can  buy  a  negro  for  $200 
which,  in  a  few  years,  by  his  care  and  instruction,  will 
become  worth  a  thousand  dollars?  Teach  the  poor 
white  man  who  cannot  now  buy  a  negro,  that  by  this 
means  he  can  buy  one,  you  secure  him  to  the  interests 
of  the  South. 

But  it  is  said  to  us — cui  hono  ?  What  good  in  this  ? 
The  North  has  the  power,  and  will  not  repeal  these 
laws.  That  is  no  reason  why  we  should  not  resist. 
Nations  should  be  actuated  by  the  same  high  sense  of 
honor  as  individuals.  If  a  man  spits  in  my  face  I  will 
strike  him,  though  he  may  thrash  me.  I  know  we 
cannot  wrest  this  justice  from  the  'dominant  North. 
They  have  fastened  the  shackles  upon  us,  and  will  not 
loose  them.  But  let  us  stand  up  and  resist  them  -like 
men.  If  the  principle  of  submission  is  to  sway  the 
councils  of  the  South,  it  will  not  be  long  before  will  be 
fulfilled  the  boast  of  Seward  that  the  whole  American 
Continent  would  soon  be  under  the  flag  of  this  Union, 
and  there  would  not  be  upon  it  the  foot  of  a  slave.  He 
is  a  calm,  cool  man,  not  given  to  imaginative  specula- 
tion, but  he  spoke  this  in  the  fullness  of  his  heart  as 
what  he  believed.  He  said  this  when  goaded  by  his 
thick-headed  associate,  Hale,  for  voting  for  the  increase 
of  the  army,  which  he  expected  to  command  himself  in 
1860,  that  he  had  not  designed  us  to  get  a  glimpse  of. 

There  are  elements  entering  into  the  opinions  of 
gentlemen  upon  this  question  that  ought  not  to  enter 


382      THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

here — elements  of  national  party,  opinions  of  Chris- 
tendom, etc.  Public  sentiment  needs  some  corrective 
upon  this  subject;  and  that  corrective  can  only  be 
made  by  directing  the  public  attention  to  this  subject. 
We  can  agitate  our  wrongs ;  we  have  no  rights  1  fear 
to  agitate ;  we  can  agitate  our  injuries ;  we  have  no 
favors  to  talk  about. 

We  are  told  that  we  should  not  assert  the  rights  of 
the  South  upon  this  issue.  Will  the  gentleman  from 
Virginia  say  what  is  the  issue  upon  which  the  South 
should  contest  their  rights  ? 

Mr.  Pryor  said  he  was  not  willing  to  assert  the 
rights  of  the  South  upon  the  proposition  to  kidnap 
cannibals  from  Africa,  or  buy  slaves  of  the  King  of 
Dahomey.  But  should  a  Black  Repubhcan  President 
be  installed  in  the  Executive  chair  in  Washington,  and 
the  power  of  the  government  be  palpably  in  his  hands 
— whenever  the  gentleman  can  satisfy  the  intelligence 
of  the  people  of  the  South  in  sufficient  numbers  to  justify 
the  movement,  then  he  was  willing  to  make  the  issue, 
and  he  could  pledge  Virginia  not  to  be  behind  Ala- 
bama. And  he  would  say  further,  that  when  the 
issue  was  presented,  and  he  was  convinced  that  a 
majority  even  of  the  people  of  Alabama  were,  upon 
mature  consideration,  wilUng  to  leave  the  Union,  they 
of  Virginia  would  be  ready  to  go  with  them.  [Ap- 
plause.] 

Mr.  Yancey  said  he  was  unfeignedly  happy  that  he 
had  been  able  to  draw  from  the  gentleman  from  Vir- 
ginia such  a  declaration.  This  morning  he  was  for 
waiting  for  a  united  South ;  now  he  would  join  with 
Alabama  alone.  The  speaker  had  great  hopes  in 
agitating  this  question ;  he  trusted  that  the  attention 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.      383 

of  the  people  of  the  South  would  be  aroused  to  the 
assertion  of  their  rights.  If  this  demand  should  be 
refused  by  the  North,  it  would  be  one  other  evidence 
that  injustice  is  the  ruling  spirit  of  the  hour  in  our 
national  legislature.  There  would  be  one  link  more 
between  Southern  men  and  Southern  men — one  link 
more  snapped  between  Southern  men  and  Northern 
men. 

The  speech  of  Mr.  Yancey  on  this  occasion  is  said  to 
have  been  one  of  his  best.  From  the  imperfect  reports 
of  it,  we  can  only  gather  the  fact  that  he  and  his 
friends,  in  advocating  such  a  preposterous  measure  as 
an  agitation  for  a  repeal  of  the  laws  prohibiting  the 
African  slave  trade  and  declaring  it  to  be  piracy,  were 
simply  attempting,  by  advocating  extreme  propositions, 
to  snap  the  last  feeble  links  which  held  together  the 
Democratic  party.  Such  was  his  plain  declaration. 
He  wanted  disunion  now.  But  Mr.  Pryor,  and  those 
who  thought  with  him,  were  not  then  for  disunion. 
Fearing  that  his  answer  to  Mr.  Yancey's  last  question 
might  be  misunderstood,  Mr.  Pryor  explained  that 
what  he  had  intended  to  say  was  tliat  he  did  not  sup- 
pose that  Alabama  would  undertake  to  leave  the  Union 
without  sufficient  cause  as  would  justify  every  other 
Southern  State  in  the  Confederacy  from  following  her. 

Mr.  Hilliard,  who  had  now  left  his  old  Whig  friends 
and  had  become  a  partisan  of  the  Buchanan  Adminis- 
tration, replied  to  the  speech  of  Mr.  Yancey  :  He 
contended  that  the  power  granted  to  Congress  to 
regulate  commerce  with  foreign  nations,  gave  them 
power  to  regulate  the  African  Slave  Trade ;  and  the 
clause  in  the  Constitution  referred  to  by  Mr.  Yancey, 
merely  restricted  them  from   exercising  that  power 


384      THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

before  1808,  expressly  conceding  to  Congress  the 
power  to  do  so  after  that  time.  Such  had  been  the 
opinion  of  the  framers  of  the  Constitution ;  such  the 
opinion  of  Jefferson,  Madison  and  Monroe,  and  also  of 
John  C.  Calhoun,  who  was  a  member  of  Monroe's  Cabi- 
net when  the  act  of  1820  was  passed  declaring  the 
slave  trade  to  be  piracy. 

He  was  not  prepared  to  go  for  a  dissolution  now 
upon  existing  causes,  and  upon  mere  abstractions  and 
questions  of  doubtful  policy.  He  believed  that  the 
time  had  come,  however,  when  the  South  must  resist 
all  aggression  upon  her  institutions,  or  give  them  up, 
and  he  believed  that  she  would  do  so.  He  believed 
when  there  should  be  made  or  attempted  a  palpable 
infringement  of  the  rights  of  the  South,,  she  would  be 
united  in  her  resistance.  He  admitted  that  there  had 
been  improper  legislation,  and  that  South  Carolina  was 
right  in  the  stand  she  took,  and  he  behoved  she  had 
brought  the  General  Government  back  again  to  the 
right  track,  and  he  preferred  to-day,  if  we  could  bring 
the  government  to  the  right  track  and  preserve  the 
integrity  of  the  Constitution,  to  remain  in  the  Union 
and  preserve  our  rights  there.  He  thought  the 
present  indications  were  such  as  to  lead  us  to  believe 
that  such  will  be  the  case.  He  alluded  to  the  decision 
of  the  Supreme  Court  in  the  Dred  Scott  case — to  the 
known  opinions  of  the  present  Chief  Magistrate  as 
evidence.  And  he  said  that  he  believed  if  the  case 
should  be  carried  to  the  Supreme  Court,  the  decision 
would  be  that  slaveholders  have  the  constitutional 
right  to  pass  through  any  State  in  this  Union  with  his 
slaves.  He  thought  the  progress  of  this  Government 
was  onward  in  the  right  direction,  and  not  backward. 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.      385 

He  thought  there  would  be  a  disposition  on  the  part  of 
the  North  now  to  yield  us  all  our  rights.  And  he  was 
not  for  disunion  upon  the  present  issues  with  the  Fed- 
eral Government. 

As  for  the  fears  expressed  by  gentlemen  here  that 
the  North  will  triumph  hereafter  over  the  South,  he 
could  not  join  with  them.  Now  that  the  South  was 
fully  aroused,  he  thought  she  would  be  able  to  defeat 
the  North  in  the  future.  He  thought  the  aspect  of 
affairs  at  present  was  hopeful,  and  with  the  present 
prospect  he  was  not  prepared  to-day  to  abandon  the 
Union  for  existing  causes  of  complaint.  But  he  would 
say  that  in  his  judgment  the  election  of  a  Black  Re- 
publican to  the  Presidency  would  result  in  the  subver- 
sion of  the  Government.  The  people  of  the  South 
would  not  wait  to  see  him  clothed  with  the  insignia  of 
office ;  would  not  wait  for  any  overt  act ;  the  end  will 
then  have  come.  But  he  did  not  desire  to  see  the 
South  divided  upon  such  a  question  as  this ;  we 
are  now  one  people — a  united  people.  Let  us  remain 
in  the  Union,  one  and  undivided,  or  let  us  go  oiat  of  it, 
if  go  we  must,  a  united  people. 

Mr.  Wm.  Ballard  Preston,  of  Virginia,  representing 
that  conservative  Whig  element  which  Mr.  Hilllird 
had  parted  from,  obtained  the  floor. 

In  regard  to, the  constitutionality  of  the  laws  sought 
to  be  repealed,  he  would  ask  the  Convention  if  they 
would  not  be  compelled  to  go  with  him  against  this 
pohcy,  if  he  should  succeed  in  showing  to  them  that 
these  laws  were  constitutional  ?  The  doctrine  of  the 
States-Rights  school  was  to  uphold  the  Constitution, 
and  not  from  any  motive  of  interest,  gain  or  ambition, 
to  surrender  one  jot  or  tittle  of  that  revered  instru- 


386      THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

ment.  He  read  from  the  Madison  Papers  containing 
the  debates  on  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  to 
show  that  the  Constitution  as  at  first  reported  contained 
a  provision  that  no  navigation  act  should  be  passed  by 
Congress  except  by  a  two-third  vote  of  all  the  members 
present ;  and  no  law  should  be  passed  prohibiting  the 
importation  of  African  slaves.  Upon  that  a  conflict 
arose  between  the  North  and  the  South.  The  matter 
was  recommitted  to  the  committee  of  detail  to  endeavor 
to  frame  some  provision  which  should  reconcile  the 
conflicting  interests  of  the  two  sections,  and  the  result 
was  the  provision  in  the  present  Constitution  under 
which  these  prohibitory  laws  had  been  passed. 

Mr.  P.  read  from  the  remarks  of  Mr.  Pinckney,  of 
South  Carolina,  to  show  that  at  the  time  this  clause 
was  reported  he  and  others  fi-om  the  South,  in  the 
Convention,  understood  it  to  grant  the  power  to  pro- 
hibit the  importation  of  African  slaves  after  the  year 
1808.  It  was  considered  a  bargain  struck,  a  contract 
made  by  the  patriotic  framers  of  the  Constitution,  in 
order  to  unite  the  two  conflicting  interests  of  the  North 
and  South,  and  enable  them  to  form  this  Federal 
Union. 

The  gentleman  from  Alabama  (Mr.  Yancey)  argues 
in  his  report  that  these  laws  are  discriminating  against 
the  South,  and  constitute  a  degrading  badge,  a  dishon- 
orable mark  upon  the  South.  By  whom  was  the  law  of 
1808  passed?  By  a  Democratic  Congress,  sanctioned 
by  the  administration  of  Thomas  Jefferson,  in  which 
was  James  Madison,  one  of  the  original  framers  of  the 
Constitution.  Was  it  to  be  beUeved  that  those  men 
who  framed  the  resolutions  of  '98  and  '99,  and  inaugu- 
rated and  established  the  doctrine  of  States-Rights, 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.  387 

could  in  eight  years  have  so  changed,  or  have  become 
so  far  forgetful  of  the  rights  of  the  South  as  to  have 
sanctioned  a  law  that  places  the  brand  of  Cain  upon  her 
forehead,  and  stamps  her  with  dishonor  before  the  civil- 
ized world?  Who  passed  the  law  of  1812  authorizing 
the  employment  of  a  naval  force  upon  the  coast  of 
Africa,  to  suppress  the  traffic  in  African  slaves?  A 
Democratic  Congress,  and  James  Monroe  was  in  the 
executive  chair.  lie  had  Wm.  H.  Crawford  and  John 
C.  Calhoun  in  his  cabinet  to  advise  and  counsel  him. 
Shall  we  now  say  that  our  ancestors  were  dull,  obtuse, 
incomprehensive,  and  neglisjent  of  the  rights  of  the 
South,  insensible  to  degradation  and  willing  to  bear  the 
brand  of  dishonor  before  Christendom  ?  Not  so.  He 
stood  there  to  preserve  the  inheritance  of  glory  and 
honor  which  had  descended  to  him  and  to  all  of  the 
South  from  these  men.  These  laws  were  constitutional, 
the  power  to  pass  them  having  been  freely  yielded  by 
the  South,  and  which  power  had  also  been  exercised 
by  Southern  men.  He  was  not  in  favor  of  taking  any 
equivocal  position,  in  which  the  honor,  integrity  and 
fairness  of  the  South  can  in  any  manner  be  questioned. 
Should  we  do  so,  we  will  lose  all  that,  should  it  become 
necessary  for  us  to  go  out  of  the  Union,  would  take  us 
out  with  honor,  a  sense  of  justice  and  right  that  could 
not  be  gainsaid. 

The  South  should  be  united,  should  be  able  to  go 
up  to  the  Federal  Government  with  a  united  array, 
whenever  it  was  deemed  necessary  to  demand  redress 
for  wrongs  inflicted,  or  the  granting  of  rights  refused. 
How  stands  the  South  upon  this  question  ?  But  two 
States  had  had  the  question  brought  before  them, 
Louisiana  and  South  Carolina,  and  they  had  taken  no 


388      THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

action.  Your  entire  representation  in  the  popular 
branch  of  Congress,  at  the  session  before  the  last,  had, 
with  the  exception  of  eight  or  ten,  solemnly  resolved 
that  it  was  inexpedient,  unwise,  and  contrary  to  the 
settled  policy  of  the  country,  to  re-open  the  African 
Slave  Trade.  To  accomphsh  the  object  here  recom- 
mended, you  must  first  attack  and  overthrow  all  your 
public  men  who  had  expressed  their  opinions  upon  this' 
subject.  We  should  act  like  wise  statesmen,  and  not 
seek  to  do  that  which  is  impracticable  and  impossible ; 
to  do  that  for  the  South  which  the  South  herself, 
speaking  through  her  representatives,  has  declared  to 
be  unwise  and  inexpedient. 

Mr.  Yancey  closed  the  debate  in  a  speech  of  even 
greater  force  than  that  with  which  he  opened  it.  He 
had  been  assailed  on  all  sides,  and  it  was  the  hot  battle 
of  argument  which  invariably  called  forth  his  closest 
logic  and  most  brilliant  rhetoric. 

He  believed  that  the  laws  prohibiting  the  African 
slave  tradie  were  in  spirit  unconstitutional.  He  ad- 
mitted that  gentlemen  upon  the  other  side  had  pro- 
duced authorities  to  show  that  when  these  laws  were 
passed,  they  might  not  have  been  in  opposition  to  the 
letter  of  the  Constitution,  and  were  not  intended  by 
those  who  passed  them  to  work  injuriously  to  the 
South.  Yet  they  might  well  have  become  in  their 
effects  repugnant  to  the  spirit  of  the  Constitution.  It 
was  no  sound  argument  against  his  position,  to  say  that 
the  constitutionality  of  these  laws  had  not  been  ques- 
tioned until  within  a  very  brief  period.  The  Missouri 
Compromise,  approved  by  Mr.  James  Monroe,  had  been 
considered  constitutional  for  more  than  30  years.    And 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  COT^EDERACY.  389 

yet  Id  1857  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States 
had  declared  it  to  be  unconstitutional. 

It  had  been  urged  against  the  proposition  before  the 
Convention  that  it  would  produce  division  among  the 
people  of  the  South.  He  would  ask,  upon  what  is  the 
South  now  united?  The  South  was  not  even  united 
upon  the  question  whether  she  was  right  or  wrong  in 
asserting  that  her  rights  had  been  trampled  upon  by  the 
North  to  such  an  extent  as  to  justify  her  breaking  the 
bonds  of  this  Union.  The  Convention  had  been  ad- 
dressed by  eloquent  gentlemen,  to  the  effect  that  noth- 
ing had  yet  been  done  to  justify  such  a  course  upon 
the  part  of  the  South.  All  admit  that  we  have  suffered 
wrongs  and  injuries.  And  the  only  thing  that  the 
South  are  united  upon  is  that  we  are  submitting  to 
these  wrongs.  And  the  proposition  now  before  the 
Convention  cannot  destroy  a  unity  which  does  not  exist 
among  the  Southern  people. 

It  was  argued  against  this  measure  that  the  South 
would  not  unite  upon  it.  He  knew  there  would  be 
opposition  to  it.  He  never  expected  to  see  the  day 
when  a  Southern  convention  met  upon  Southern  issues 
would  be  superior  to  that  band  of  patriots  that  met  in 
the  convention  that  framed  the  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence, for  even  there  were  some  in  that  body  who 
proposed  for  a  little  time  longer  to  trust  to  the  clem- 
ency of  the  British  Crown  before  extreme  measures  were 
resorted  to.  It  was  human  nature  that  there  should 
ever  be  found  some  such  men  in  ever}^  body  that  should 
assemble  to  discuss  so  mighty  a  question  as  one  in 
which  life,  fortune  and  sacred  honor  were  involved.  He 
therefore  never  expected  a  unity  of  action  on  the  part 
of  the  South  on  any  one  issue.     But  one  thing  would 


390      THE  CEADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

influence  one  mind  ;  another  thing  would  influence  still 
another  mind,  till  at  last  all  these  influences  would  pro- 
duce sufficient  eflect  to  enable  the  South  to  move 
forward  from  a  Lexington  to  a  Bunker  Hill,  and  so  go 
until  the  foe  had  been  driven  from  the  land. 

It  was  said  that  this  was  an  inferior  issue.  A  tax  of 
three  cents  a  pound  on  tea  was  practically  an  inferior 
issue.  But,  as  his  colleague  (Mr.  Scott)  had  said,  that 
involved  a  great  principle.  A  great  principle  was  in- 
volved here,  the  principle  of  equality,  the  principle  that 
our  government  should  not  be  permitted  to  brand  our 
institutions  as  unworthy  of  extension,  even  if  the  letter 
of  the  Constitution  gave  it  the  power  to  do  so. 

He  could  produce  a  proposition — if  it  would  not  be 
considered  presumption  in  him  to  do  so — let  us  meet 
and  consult  together  upon  this  question  of  the  duty  of 
the  South  now,  and  if  the  assembled  sovereignty  of 
the  South  should  say,  wait,  we  are  not  ready  to  move 
now,  he  would  respect  that  voice.  But  perhaps  that 
Convention  might  say,  we  do  not  wish  to  move  alone — 
in  Alabama,  for  instance — but  would  prefer  to  have  aU 
the  other  States  with  us.  He  would  go  to  Virginia,  and 
though  she  cannot  move  on  account  of  her  peculiar 
border  position,  she  might  say  in  a  spirit  of  true  sister- 
hood to  the  Gulf  States — move  on,  form  your  Confed- 
eracy, and  we  wiU  see  that  you  are  not  molested  by  a 
foe  that  should  reach  you  across  our  territory.  And  if 
Virginia  should  give  that  response,  he  would  take  her 
by  the  hand  and  bid  her  fareweU  and  turn  Southwards 
and  ask  South  Carolina,  Georgia,  Alabama,  Mississippi, 
Texas,  Florida,  Arkansas,  and  Louisiana,  to  form  a 
confederacy  of  right  and  equality  and  justice,  with  a 
unity  of  clime,  production  and  brotherly  love.     And 


THE  CRADLE  OP  TflE  CONFEDERACY.  391 

when  they  had  thus  done,  there  would  be  room  enough 
upon  our  shield  to  inscribe  the  "  Sic  Semper  Tyrannis  " 
of  Virginia.  North  Carolina,  Tennessee,  Kentucky, 
and  Missouri  could  come  in,  and  there  would  soon  be 
produced  such  a  retrograde  movement  in  the  opinions  of 
the  North  that  there  would  not  be  a  Yankee  within  a 
hundred  miles  of  the  border  of  the  slave  confederacy 
who  would  not  become  a  slave  catcher  if  we  would  let 
him  trade  with  us.  This  was  but  a  faint  foreshadowing 
of  an  idea  that  ^as  at  the  bottom  of  his  heart,  but  which 
he  had  kept  down,  because  he  had  not  been  shown  the 
proper  time  to  give  it  shape. 

It  was  in  the  course  of  this  address  that  Mr.  Yancet 
alluded  to  the  position  assumed  by  Mr.  Hilliard,  that 
nothing  had  yet  occured  to  justify  secession,  but  that 
the  election  of  a  Republican  President  in  18G0  would 
justify  it.  The  language  of  Mr.  Yancey,  as  taken 
down  at  the  moment  by  a  short-hand  reporter,  was 
this  : 

"  I  say  with  all  deference  to  my  colleague  (Mr.  Hil- 
''  Hard)  that  no  more  inferior  issue  could  be  tendered  to 
"  the  South,  upon  which  we  should  dissolve  the  Union, 
"  than  the  loss  of  an  election.  If,  in  the  contest  of 
"  i860  for  the  Presidency,  Seward  should  receive  the 
"  legal  number  of  votes  necessary  to  elect  him  accord- 
"  ing  to  the  Constitution  and  the  law,  gentlemen  say 
*'  that  then  will  be  the  time  to  dissolve  the  Union.  If 
"  that  is  made  the  cause  of  disunion,  I  say  to  them  I 
"  will  go  with  them,  but  I  am  going  in  the  wake  of  an 
*'  inferior  issue  ;  that  there  was  a  banner  over  me  that 
"  is  not  of  the  kind  1  would  wish.  When  1  am  asked 
"  to  raise  the  flag  of  revolution  against  the  Constitution, 
"  I  am  asked  to  do  an  unconstitutional  thing,  according 
*'  to  the  Constitution  as  it  now  exists ;  I  am  asked  to 
"  put  myself  in  the  position  of  a  rebel,  of  a  traitor  ;  in 


392      THiJ  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

"  in  a  position  where,  if  the  Government  shouM  suc- 
'*  ceed  and  put  me  down  in  the  revolution,  I  and  my 
'^  friends  can  be  arraigned  before  the  Supreme  Court  of 
"  the  United  States — which  would  be  the  creature  of 
"  Seward,  as  he  has  already  given  notice  in  the  Senate — 
"  and  there  sentenced  to  be  hanged  for  violating  the 
*^  Constitution  and  the  laws  of  my  country.  And  if  I 
*'  should  be  asked  why  sentence  should  not  be  passed 
"  on  me,  I  could  not  then,  as  I  can  now  in  reference  to 
"  past  issues — I  could  not  say  then,  even  to  the  bloody 
"  judges  who  would  sit  upon  the  bench — my  hands  are 
"  guiltless  of  wrong  against  the  .Constitution  of  my 
"  country,  and  I  appeal  to  an  enlightened  posterity,  to 
"  the  judgment  of  the  world,  to  vindicate  my  name  and 
"  memory,  when,  as  Emmett  said,  my  country  shall 
"  have  taken  her  place  once  more  an  equal  among  the 
"  nations  of  the  earth.  Why  am  I  ready  to  go  with 
**  you  ?  (for  disunion.)  Because,  in  my  judgment,  the 
"  Union  is  now  dissolved ;  because  we  have  a  Govern- 
"  ment,  but  not  the  Union  which  the  Constitution 
«  made." 

Subsequently,  when  the  Alabama  Legislature  resolved 
that  the  election  of  a  Republican  President  would 
justify  secession,  Mr.  Yancey  explained  this  language 
by  saying  that  with  him  and  men  of  his  way  of  think- 
ing, the  justification  had  already  existed  for  thirty 
years,  but  with  those  who  had  thus  far  found  no  justifi- 
cation for  such  a  movement,  the  election  of  Lincoln 
simply  could  not  furnish  the  excuse. 

No  action  was  taken  by  the  Commercial  Convention 
upon  the  several  reports  and  sets  of  resolutions.  The 
proceedings  derive  importance  simply  from  the  ghmpse 
they  give  of  the  opinions  and  temper  of  the  leading 
minds  of  the  South  relative  to  the  question  of  disunion. 

Congress  had  virtually  refiised  Kansas  admittance  to 
the  Union  with  a  Constitution  recognieing  slavery.     So 


tHE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERAOY.      393 

now,  as  in  1850,  the  States-Rights  leaders  commenced 
an  agitation  for  secession.  Soon  after  the  adjournment 
of  the  Southern  Commercial  Convention,  Mr.  Slaughter 
wrote  to  Mr.  Yancey  suggesting  that  the  South  resolve 
itself  itself  into  a  great  States-Rights  party,  and  that 
the  old  National  Democratic  party  be  abandoned.  To 
this  letter  Mr.  Yancey  replied  as  follows  : 

"  Montgomery,  June  15,  1858. 

"  Dear  Sir :  Your  kind  favor  of  the  15tL  is  re- 
"  ceived. 

"  I  hardly  agree  with  you  that  a  general  movement 
"  can  be  made  that  will  clear  out  the  Augean  stable. 
"  If  the  Democracy  were  overthrown,  it  would  result  in 
"  giving  place  to  a  greater  and  hungrier  swarm  of  flies. 

''  The  remedy  of  the  South  is  not  in  such  a  process. 
'*  It  is  in  a  diligent  organization  of  her  true  men  for 
"  prompt  resistance  to  the  next  aggression.  It  must 
"  come  in  the  nature  of  things.  No  national  party  can 
"  save  us ;  no  sectional  party  can  ever  do  it.  But  if 
"  we  could  do  as  our  fathers  did — organize  '  commii>- 
"  tees  of  safety  '  all  over  the  cotton  States  (and  it  is 
"  only  in  them  that  we  can  hope  for  any  effective 
"  movement,)  we  shall  fire  the  Southern  heart,  instruct 
"  the  Southern  mind,  give  courage  to  each  other,  and 
"  at  the  proper  moment,  by  one  organized  concerted 
"  action,  we  can  precipitate  the  cotton  States  into  revo- 
"lution." 

"  The  idea  has  been  shadowed  forth  in  the  South  by 
^'  Mr.  Ruffin ;  has  been  taken  up  and  recommended  in 
"  the  Advertiser,  under  the  name  of '  League  of  United 
"  Southerners,'  who,  keeping  up  their  old  party  relations 
'-  on  all  other  questions,  will  hold  the  Southern  issue 
"paramount,  and  will  influence   parties,   Legislatures 


394      TfiE  CEADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

"and  statesmen.     I   have  no  time  to  enlarge,  but  to 
"  suggest  merely.       In  haste,  yours,  &c., 

"W.  L.  Yancey. 
"  To  James  S.  Slaughter,  Esq.'' 

On  the  10th  of  July,  at  a  barbecue  given  at  Bethol 
Church,  near  Montgomery,  Mr.  Yancey  spoke  in  favor 
of  the  "  League,"  saying  that  he  "  bided  the  time  when 
"  the  people  would  throw  off  the  shackles,  both  of  party 
"  and  of  the  Government,  and  assert  their  independence 
"  in  a  Southern  Confederacy."  At  another  barbecue 
given  at  Benton,  July  17,  he  again  recommended  the 
formation  of  local  and  State  Leagues,  and  a  Central 
Southern  Congress  of  the  Leagues.  At  Montgomery, 
July  20th,  he  again  urged  the  establishment  of  the 
the  Leagues.  He  said  that  in  this  matter  the  people 
were  not  without  a  great  precedent.  Long  before  the 
Declaration  of  Independence,  long  before  it  was 
dreamed  (save  by  a  few)  that  the  colonies  would  be 
compelled  to  withdraw  from  the  British  Empire — while 
the  provincial  Congress  were  even  yet  discussing  the 
phraseology  of  their  petitions  to  the  King  to  redress 
their  grievances,  the  colonists  acting  upon  the  wise 
practical  principle  of  "Pray  to  God  and  keep  your 
"  powder  dry,"  formed  committees  of  safety  all  over  the 
country.  These  committees  were  active  in  forming  a  * 
public  opinion  and  giving  voice  to  that  opinion,  in 
gathering  up  munitions  of  war,  and  in  every  conceiva- 
ble way  organizing  our  ancestry  into  such  an  array 
that  when  independence  was  declared  they  were  able  to 
crown  it  with  the  triumph  of  Yorktown.  The  lesson 
and  the  example,  said  Mr.  Yancey,  are  eminently  sug- 
gestive. 


THE  CItADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.  395 

Never  was  there  such  an  agitator  as  William  L. 
Yancey.  His  person  was  imposing,  his  eloquence 
was  always  attractive,  forcible  and  captivating,  at  times 
almost  supernatural.  He  was  fully  imbued  with  the, 
policy  of  the  leading  minds  of  his  native  State,  South 
Carolina,  and  he  lost  no  occasion  upon  which  to  enforce 
that  policy.  With  the  language  of  Demosthenes 
against  Philip,  he  had  the  will  which  urged  Caesar 
across  the  Rubicon,  and  the  persistence  which  placed 
the  crown  upon  the  brow  of  Robert  Bruce.  But, 
although  the  rejection  of  the  Lecompton  Constitution 
by  Congress,  the  denunciation  of  the  Supreme  Court  by 
the  dominant  party  at  the  North,  and  the  declaration 
of  the  "  irrepressible  conflict "  by  Mr.  Seward  aided 
him  in  his  efforts  at  agitation,  still  the  views  of  Mr. 
Yancey  met  a  strong  opposition  at  his  own  door  and  far 
stronger  resistance  in  the  border  States.  Mr.  Pryor, 
with  his  brilliant  pen,  assailed  the  Leagues  vigorously, 
and  indulged  in  an  acrimonious  debate  with  Mr. 
Yancey.  In  reply  to  one  of  Mr.  Pryor 's  most  forcible 
articles,  Mr.  Yancey  published  an  elaborate  defence  of 
his  course.  His  letter  to  Mr.  Pryor  reveals  the  preva- 
lent sentiment  of  the  States-Rights  men  of  the  Gulf 
States,  the  position  of  the  border  States,  and  the  facts 
and  expectations  upon  which  they  based  the  ultimate 
independence  of  the  South.     He  said  : 

"  You  take  exception  to  these  expressions  ;  *  Let  us 
"  form  these  leagues  all  over  the  cotton  States,  as  it  is 
"  only  in  them  we  can  hope  for  any  effective  movement.* 
"  '  At  the  proper  moment,  by  one  organized,  concen- 
"  trated  action,  we  can  precipitate  the  cotton  States  into 
"a  revolution.'  Commenting  on  this,  you  say,  Hhe 
"  leading  States  of  the  South  are  specifically  excluded 


396      THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

"  from  his  plan  of  concerted  operations ;  and  that  is 
"  done  on  the  avowed  pretence  of  a  lack  of  Southern 
"  spirit  in  Virginia  and  the  other  border  States  !' 

"  To  be  candid,  I  place  but  little  trust  in  such  States 
"as  Delaware,  Maryland,  Tennessee,  Kentucky,  and 
"  Missouri.  In  the  first,  slavery  is  but  a  nominal  insti- 
"  tution ;  and  anti-slavery  ideas  prevail  to  a  large  extent. 
"  In  Maryland,  a  freesoiler  is  an  honored  representative 
"in  Congress;  and,  in  the  great  issue  in  1856,  that 
"  State  separated  herself  from  her  sisters  and  voted  for 
"  Fillmore.  Tennessee  has  long  maintained  a  Free  Soil 
"  Senator  in  Congress,  and  a  large  minority  now  sustain 
"  him .  there.  In  the  Methodist  Conference  her  dele- 
"  gates  voted  against  striking  out  the  anti-slavery 
"  clause  in  its  discipUne — while  she  maintains  on  her 
"  Supreme  Court  bench,  and  in  the  chair  of  law  pro- 
, "  fessorship  in  her  University,  one  who  openly  declares 
" '  slavery  to  be  a  moral,  social  and  political  evil'  In 
"  Missouri,  Benton  was  upheld  when  unsound  on  this 
"issue — was  sent  to  the  House  of  Representatives 
"  when  ousted  from  the  Senate,  because  of  his  anti- 
"  slavery  ideas ;  and  now  the  St.  Louis  District  is 
"  represented  by  a  Free  Soiler,  who  is  a  candidate  for 
"re-election  upon  the  emancipation  platform.  Sur- 
"  rounded,  as  she  almost  is,  by  free  soil  territory,  her 
"  slave  owners  are  emigrating  in  large  numbers  to 
"  Texas,  and  will  soon  leave  her  a  prey  to  Seward's 
"  abolition  system  of  legislation. 

"  In  Kentucky  Mr.  Clay's  emancipation  and  coloni- 
"  zation  ideas  are  bearing  legitimate  fruit,  and  Mr. 
"  Crittenden  holds  powerful  sway  over  the  affections  of 
"its  people;  and  it  is  hardly  to  be  doubted  but  that 
"Mr.   Crittenden,   conjoined   with   the    Anti-Slavery 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERAOY.      397 

"  American  party  of  the  North,  would  carry  Kentucky. 
"  I  may  well  be  excused,  then,  if  I  said,  in  private  cor- 
"  respondence  (what  I  frankly  confess  I  would  have 
"  hesitated  to  make  a  matter  of  public  discussion)  that 
"  I  only  hoped  for  an  effective  movement  in  the  cotton 
"  States.  There  is  much  in  the  way  in  which  an  idea 
"  is  put.  I  said  this  much,  and  no  more.  I  did  not 
"  write,  as  you  have  charged,  either  in  words  or  in 
"spirit,  that  I  acted  on  an  avowed  pretence  of  a  lack 
"  of  Southern  spirit  in  Virginia  and  the  other  border 
"  States.  That  is  your  own  language  and  idea — and  I 
"  repudiate  both.  I  did  not  name  Virginia.  It  is  true 
"  I  did  not  discriminate  between  Virginia  and  the 
"  other  border  States.  My  purposes  did  not  call  for  it. 
"  In  a  hastily  written  private  note,  it  would  have  been 
"  out  of  place,  as  between  Mr.  Slaughter  and  myself 

"  It  is  equally  true  that  I  do  not  expect  Virginia  to 
"take  any  initiative  steps  towards  a  dissolution  of  the 
"  Union,  when  that  exigency  shall  be  forced  upon  the 
"  South.  Her  position  as  a  border  State,  and  a  well 
"  considered  Southern  policy — (a  policy  which  has 
i"  been  digested  and  understood  and  approved  by  some 
"  of  the  ablest  men  in  Virginia,  as  you  yourself  niust 
"  be  aware) — would  seem  to  demand  that,  when  such 
"  movement  takes  place  by  any  considerable  number  of 
"  Southern  States,  Virginia  and  the  other  border  States 
"  should  remain  in  the  Union,  where,  by  their  position 
"  and  their  counsels,  they  could  prove  move  effective 
"  friends  than  by  moving  out  of  the  Union,  and  thus 
"  giving  to  the  Southern  Confederacy  a  long  abolition, 
"  hostile  border  to  watch.  In  the  event  of  the  move- 
"  ment  being  suCcessfiil,  in  time,  Virginia,  and  the 
"  other  border   States  that  desired  it,  could  join  the 

0 


398      THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

"Southern  Confederacy,  and  be  protected  by  the 
"  power  of  its  arms  and  its  diplomacy. 

"  Your  charge,  that  I  designed  to,  and  did  impeach 
"  the  fidelity  of  Virginia,  is  untrue,  however  much  of 
"  truth  there  may  be  in  it  with  reference  to  those  border 
"  States  that  I  have  named. 

"  The  article  in  your  issue  of  the  21st  also  assailed 
"  me  as  having  opened  *  a  new  school  of  Southern 
"statesmanship,'  and  having  abandoned  the  old  and 
"  wisely  considered  policy  of  Southern  unity,  and  '  sub- 
"  stituted  a  system  of  mutual  suspicion  and  isolated 
"  action.' 

"  I  cheerfully  accept  the  position  assigned  me  as  a 
"  member  of  '  A  New  School  of  Southern  Statesman- 
"  ship,'  however  far  you  may  consider  it  from  being 
"  complimentary.  In  my  opinion  the  South  stands 
"  greatly  in  need  of  such  a  school.  The  benefits  of  that 
"  old  school  of  statesmanship,  which  you  applaud  so 
"  much,  are  few,  while  its  aggregate  results  have  been, 
"  in  a  high  degree,  disastrous  to  the  South.  Under  the 
"  influence  of  that  *  old  school,'  that  magnificent  pro- 
"  slavery  domain,  now  covered  by  the  anti-slavery 
"  States  of  Ohio,  Indiana,  Illinois,  Michigan,  Wisconsin, 
"  and  Iowa,  was  excluded  fi-om  the  march  of  Southern 
"  progress,  and  devoted  forever  to  free  soil ;  under  the 
"  same  '  old  school '  influence,  four-fifths  of  the  vast 
"  pro-slavery  territory  of  Louisiana  was  wrested  from 
"  us,  and  the  South  forever  excluded  fi:om  settling  it 
"  with  her  institutions ;  under  the  same  influence,  the 
"  black  line  of  36  deg.  30  min.  was  run  through  the 
"  pro-slavery  State  of  Texas ;  under  the  same  influ- 
"  ence,  the  slave  trade  with  Afi:ica  was  prohibited,  and 
"  afterwards  an  entangling  and  most  mischievous  alli- 

• 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  OONFEDERACY.      399 

"  ance  made  with  England  to  send  men  and  ships  to 
"  blockade  the  coast  of  Africa ;  under  the  same  influ- 
"  ence,  the  internal  slave  trade  between  Virginia  and 
"  the  District  of  Columliia  was  abolished  ;  and,  under 
"  the  same  old  school  influence,  has  the  haughty  de- 
"  mand  of  the  Free  Soiler  been  submitted  to — that 
"  Kansas  should  not  be  admitted  as  a  State  under  its 
"  pro-slavery  constitution,  unless  that  constitution  shall 
"  substantially  and  practically  receive  the  approval  of 
"  the  Free  Soil  majority  in  Kansas. 

"  That  *  old  school  of  Southern  statesmanship  '  found 
"  the  South  an  equal  in  the  Senate,  and  the  owner  of 
"  nearly  all  the  territories.  It  has  left  the  South  in  a 
"  minority  of  two  Ptates  in  the  Senate,  with  five  vast 
"  Territories,  out  of  which  no  sane  man  in  the  South 
"  expects  ever  to  see  another  pro-slavery  State  added 
"  to  the  Union  ! 

"  The  policy  of  that  *  old  school  of  Southern  states- 
"  manship '  has  been  to  ignore  as  '  wicked  and  foolish,' 
"  and  as  ^  mischievous,'  a  persistent  demand  of  all  our 
"  rights  in  the  Union,  and  to  yield  a  part  for  '  harmo- 
"  ny's '  sake.  It  has  been  a  policy  based  upon  the 
"  maintenance  of  the  harmony  of  administrations  and 
"  of  parties,  upon  the  advancement  of  the  chances  of 
"  Presidential  aspirants ;  and  he  who  has  ever  become 
'-  alarmed  at  the  disastrous  results  to  the  South,  and 
"  has  not  considered  them  as  at  all  counterbalanced  by 
"  the  splendid  success  of  parties,  and  of  our  great  men, 
"  in  controlling  and  leading  those  parties,  has  invariably 
"  been  denounced  by  the  partisan  editors  attached  to 
"  that  '  old  school '  as  '  factionists  '  and  *  extremists,' 
^'  and  as  '  disaffected  _'  aud  '  disappointed  politicians.'  " 


CHAPTER   XV. 


Instructions  to  Alabama  Delegates — Action  of  the  Alabama 
Legislature — Views  of  Forsyth,  White  and  Others — 
Meeting  of  the  Charleston  Convention — Yancey' s^Qr eat 
Address —  Withdrawal  of  Southern  Delegates — Position 
of  Political  Parties — Yancey  at  Baltimore — He  is 
Offered  the  Vice-Presidency — Nomination  of  Breckin- 
ridge, Etc.,  Etc. 


"  The  Republican  party  is  a  conspiracy,  under  the  forms,  but  in  viola- 
tion of  the  spirit  of  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  to  exclude  the 
citizens  of  the  slave- holding  States  from  all  share  in  the  government  of 
the  country,  and  to  compel  them  to  adapt  their  institutions  to  the  opin- 
ions of  citizens  of  free  States."— [/SJjeecTi  of  Judge  Wm.  Duer,  of  N.  Y.,  at 
Oswego,  Aug.  6, 1860. 

"  Remember,  in  addition  to  this,  that  the  leading  Abolitionists  ac- 
knowledged no  law  which  might  stand  in  the  way  of  their  interests  or 
their  passions.  Against  anybody  else  the  Constitution  of  the  country 
would  have  been  a  protection.  But  they  disregarded  its  limitations,  and 
had  no  scruples  about  swearing  to  support  it  with  a  predetermination  to 
violate  it.  We  had  been  well  warned  by  all  the  men  best  entitled  to  our 
confidence— particularly  and  eloquently  warned  by  Mr.  Clay  and  Mr. 
"Webster— that  if  ever  the  Abolitionists  got  a  hold  upon  the  organized 
physical  force  of  the  country,  they  would  govern  without  law,  scoflf  at  the 
authority  of  the  courts,  and  throw  down  all  the  defences  of  civil  liberty.' ' 
[Judge  Jehk  S.  BiiACK.] 

On  the  eleventh  day  of  January,  1860,  the  Demo- 
cratic party  of  Alabama  met  in  Convention  at  Mont- 
gomery and  adopted,  with  singular  unanimity,  a  series 
of  resolutions  declaring  that  the  principles  recognized 
by  the  Supreme  Court  in  the  Dred  Scott  case,  should 
be  maintained  by  the  South ;  that  their  delegates  to 
the  approaching  National  Democratic  Convention  at 
Charleston,  should  present  these  resolutions  for  the 
adoption  of  that  body  :  that  they  insist  upon  the  adop- 


402      THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

tion  of  the  resolutions  in  substance;  and  that  if  they 
should  not  be  adopted  the  delegates  must  withdraw.  It 
was  provided  that  in  case  of  the  withdrawal  of  the  dele- 
gates, the  Executive  Committee  should  call  the  State 
Convention  together  to  take  action  as  to  their  next 
step.  ^v':r.  Yancey  was  a  leading  spirit  in  this  Conven- 
tion. After  twelve  years  he  had  succeeded  in  bringing 
his  p«irty  firmly  to  the  support  of  the  Calhoun  resolu- 
tions of  1848.  Gen.  Cass  had  evaded  the  issue  then. 
Gen.  Pierce,  in  1852,  had  been  elected  upon  the  Com- 
promise measures,  and  the  Calhoun  pronunciamento  at 
that  time  seemed  almost  forgotten.  In  1856  Mr.  Bu- 
chanan had  also  evaded  the  issue,  under  the  doubtful 
language  of  the  Cincinnati  Convention  ;  but  now  in 
1860  the  Supreme  Court  had  recognized  the  justice  of 
Mr.  Calhoum's  position  ;  had  vindicated  the  principles 
of  Mr.  Yancey  ;  and  the  people  of  the  South,  irrespec- 
tive of  party,  however  great  the  difference  among  them 
upon  mere  questions  of  policy,  acknowledged  the  justice 
of  the  claims  preferred  by  the  Democratic  State  Con- 
vention of  Alabama. 

On  the  24th  of  February,  1860,  the  Alabama  Leg- 
islature, with  but  two  dissenting  voices,  adopted  joint 
resolutions  declaring  that,  whereas,  a  sectional  party 
calling  itself  Republican,  committed  aUke  by  its  own 
acts  and  antecedents,  and  the  public  avowals  and  secret 
machinations  of  its  leaders  to  a  deadly  hostility  to  the 
rights  of  the  Southern  people,  has  acquired  the  ascen- 
dency in  nearly  every  Northern  State,  and  hopes  by 
success  in  the  approaching  Presidential  election  to 
seize  the  Government  itself,  therefore  it  shall  be  the 
duty  of  the  Governor,  upon  the  success  of  that  party 
in  the  election,  to  call  together  a  State  Convention  to 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.      403 

consider,  determine,  and  do  whatever,  in  the  opinion 
of  said  Convention,  the  rights,  interests  and  honor  of 
Alabama  may  require  to  be  done  for  her  protection. 
The  resolutions  also  declared  that  it  was  the  solemn 
duty  of  the  people  not  "  to  permit  such  seizure  (of  the 
"  Government)  by  those  whose  unmistakable  aim  is  to 
"  pervert  its  whole  machinery  to  the  destruction  of  a 
"portion  of  its  members,"  but  "to  provide  in  advance 
"  the  means  by  which  they  may  escape  such  peril  and 
"  dishonor,  and  devise  new  securities  for  perpetuating 
"  the  blessings  of  liberty  to  themselves  and  posterity." 

At  a  later  day  in  their  session,  the  General  Assembly 
replied  to  resolutions  forwarded  from  South  Carolina, 
that  Alabama  had  declared  that  under  no  circum- 
stances would  she  submit  to  the  foul  domination  of  a 
sectional  Northern  party,  and  had  called  for  a  State 
Convention,  and  had  provided  money  for  military  con- 
tingencies in  the  event  of  the  triumph  of  the  Republican 
party  in  the  Presidential  election. 

The  unanimity  with  which  these  resolutions  were 
adopted  was  not  due  to  a  unanimous  purpose  to  break 
up  the  Union  in  the  event  of  a  constitutional  election  of 
a  Republican  to  the  Presidency,  for  during  the  ensuing 
campaign  many  leading  speakers  from  the  hustings 
advised  against  disunion  until  the  commission  of  an 
unconstitutional  act,  or,  as  it  was  called  by  some,  an 
overt  act,  by  a  Republican  administration ;  and  very 
many  others,  constituting  it  was  claimed  a  majority  of 
the  people  of  Alabama,  contended  that  disunion  should 
not  be  attempted  by  separate  State  action,  but  that  the 
question  should  be  submitted  to  a  Congiess  of  all  the 
Southern  States,  a  majority  of  which  Congress  Mr. 
Yancey,  in  his  letter  to  Mr.  Pryor,  had  clearly  shown 


404      THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

would  be  opposed  to  secession  in  any  form.  The  in- 
structions to  the  Democratic  delegates  to  withdraw  from 
the  Charleston  Convention  unless  the  construction 
given  by  the  Supreme  Court  to  the  territorial  question 
was  recognized,  were  voted  for  by  many  simply  as  a 
threat,  and  with  the  purpose  of  intimidating  the  Na- 
tional Convention.  It  was  supposed  that  a  proposition 
coming  in  the  shape  of  a  demand  from  a  united  South, 
and  coupled  with  a  threat  of  ruin  in  the  event  of  its 
refusal,  would  so  operate  upon  the  fears  of  those  who 
could  not  afford  to  lose  the  electoral  votes  of  the 
Southern  States,  as  to  secure  its  recognition.  The 
same  threat  was  made  by  the  Democratic  State  Con- 
vention of  Alabama  in  1848,  at  the  instigation  of  Mr. 
Yancey,  but  the  party  had  not  considered  itself  bound 
by  the  threat  after  the  nomination  of  Gen.  Cass.  So 
now,  many  of  the  surging  mass  who  composed  the 
State  Convention,  in  voting  for  the  resolution  of  with- 
drawal, were  more  intent  upon  terrifying  their  Northern 
associates  than  upon  actually  breaking  up  the  only 
national  party  in  existence.  As  there  were  many  who 
voted  for  the  withdrawal  with  no  expectation  or  desire 
that  it  would  take  place,  so  there  were  many  who,  while 
willing  for  the  withdrawal  in  the  event  contemplated, 
were  honestly  of  the  opinion  that  such  withdrawal  would 
neither  break  up  the  Democratic  party  nor  the  Union. 
Men  of  this  latter  class  argued  that  the  nominee  of  the 
withdrawing  States,  comprising  three-fourths  or  more 
of  those  which  would  certainly  cast  their  electoral  votes 
for  a  Democratic  candidate,  might  be  finally  recognized 
as  the  legitimate  candidate  by  the  controlling  voice  of 
the  Democracy  of  New  York,  Pennsylvania,  New  Jer- 
sey, California,  and  Oregon,  and  thus  be  successful ;  or. 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.      405 

failing  in  this,  they  believed  that,  with  three  or  four 
candidates  for  the  Presidency,  there  would  be  no  elec- 
tion by  the  people,  and  the  decision  would  then  rest 
with  Congress,  as  a  majority  of  the  Representatives  in 
the  House,  from  a  majority  of  the  States,  was  Demo- 
cratic, but  opposed  to  Mr.  Douglas,  they  believed  the 
election  of  their  own  candidate  to  be  certain,  if  in  the 
end  it  should  have  to  be  determined  by  that  body.  If 
the  House  should  fail  to  elect  by  the  4th  day  of  March, 
then  the  Senate,  in  which  the  Democratic  opponents  of 
Mr.  Douglas  had  a  clear  majority,  would  elect  a  Vice- 
President,  and  he  would  become  President  by  default. 
So  argued  many  of  the  most  intelligent  leaders  of  the 
people,  and  thus — some  actuated  by  a  hope  that  in- 
timidation would  prevail,  others  that  withdrawal  would 
not  materially  affect  the  party  vote,  and  still  others 
because  of  popular  clamor — all  joined  in  the  instruc- 
tions which  rent  the  Democratic  party  in  twain.  Ala- 
bama was  the  first  name  on  the  list  of  States.  Mr. 
Yancey  was  the  most  prominent  man.  It  was  generally 
conceded  that  to  him  should  belong  the  honor  of  pre- 
senting to  the  Convention  the  claims  of  the  South.  At 
that  day  he  was  the  foremost  man  in  importance  in 
the  whole  Union.  His  eloquent  voice  was  to  lay  down 
to  the  United  States  the  uUiiiiatum  of  the  South. 

The  unanimity  of  the  General  Assembly  in  the 
passage  of  the  resolutions  calling  a  State  Convention  in 
the  event  of  Republican  victory,  was  likewise  more  an 
apparent  than  an  actual  unity  of  sentiment.  Many  who 
voted  for  the  call  were  ready  to  deny  that  occasion  ex- 
isted for  extreme  action,  and  in  the  event  of  the  meeting 
of  a  convention,  would  be  ready  to  resort  to  any  delay 
by  which  the  passions  of  the  hour  could  be  assuaged 


406      THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

and  the  dreaded  spectre  of  disunion  be  exorcised. 
John  Forsyth,  late  Minister  to  Mexico,  then  a  member 
from  Mobile,  spoke  and  voted  against  the  resolutions. 
His  remarks  proved  to  be  prophetic.  Mr.  Forsyth,  in 
a  letter  dated  Sept.  13,  1859,  to  Wm.  F.  Samford,  had 
said  : 

"  But  to  come  to  your  ultimatum  ;  for  your  inability 
"  to  grasp  this  bit  of  moonshine,  you  will  go  out  of  the 
"  Union  !  break  up  the  Government !  Well,  sir,  you 
"will  find  a  larger  majority  against  you  in  such  a  prop- 
"  osition  in  Alabama  than  you  did  a  few  weeks  ago, 
"  when  without  the  backing  of  that '  party  '  at  which 
"  you  sneer,  you  sought  to  be  elected  Governor  of  the 
"  Commonwealth  on  the  naked  strength  of. your  political 
^'  theories.  Sir,  the  Union  cannot  be  dissolved  upon 
"  such  issue,  and  the  sin  of  your  course,  and  that  of  those 
"  who,  with  you,  are  agitating  this  firebrand  of  abstrac- 
'*  tion  in  the  Democratic  party  on  the  eve  of  a  vital  con- 
"  flict  with  the  combined  hosts  of  Black  Republicanism,  is, 
"  that  in  the  pursuit  of  a  fallacious  hope  and  an  impossi- 
"  ble  dream,  you  are  paving  the  way  for  the  defeat  of  the 
"  South ;  for  bringing  it  to  the  footstool  of  an  Aboli- 
"tion  President,  and  for  draining  a  deeper  cup  of 
"  humiliation  and  disgrace  than  it  has  yet  touched  with 
"  its  lips.  I  charge  that  you  are  no  friend  of  the 
"  South  in  the  counsels  you  give  it ;  I  arraign  not  your 
''  sound  heart  but  your  hot  head )  I  charge  that  you 
"  advise  it  to  risk  its  controlling  influence  in  the  Gov- 
"  ernment  and  disastrous  defeat  in  the  forthcoming 
"  battle  with  the  Lucifer  of  fanaticism  and  his  devilish 
"  array  of  Black  Republicans.  I  charge  that  you 
"  propose  to  break  up  the  Democratic  party,  and  sweep 
"  from  existence  the  only  obstacle  that  stands  between 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.      40^ 

"  the  Constitution  and  the  Federal  ravisher — to  give 
"  over  the  Government  to  centralism,  to  protective 
"  tariffs,  to  the  bottomless  abyss  of  expenditure  for 
"  internal  improvements,  to  the  upheaving  and  toppling 
"  down  the  mighty  structure  of  Democratic  policy 
"  which  Jefferson  founded,  and  Madison,  Jackson,  Polk 
"  and  Pierce  have  built  upon,  to  the  subversion  of  the 
"  form  and  the  spirit  of  States-Rights  as  vital  elements 
"  in  our  Federative  system,  to  the  undoing  of  all  that 
"  Democratic  statesmen  have  tired  and  toiled  for  during 
"  three-quarters  of  a  century.  And  for  what  ?  For  a 
"  vague  theory  of  constitutional  right  as  devoid  of 
"  value,  form  and  substance  as  the  ^  baseless  fabric  of  a 
'^  vision.'  " 

In  the  same  vein  Mr.  Forsyth  addressed  the  General 
Assembly  on  the  2d  of  February,  1860,  declaring  that 
there  was  no  occasion  for  the  adoption  of  the  resolu- 
tions reported  by  the  Committee  on  Federal  Relations. 
lie  said  that  no  friend  of  the  Democracy  could  consis- 
tently go  with  the  late  Democratic  State  Convention, 
because  they  send  to  Charleston  a  platform  '^  which  it 
"  is  known  beforehand  cannot  be  granted  without  scat- 
'^  tering  the  Democracy  of  the  Union  to  the  winds." 
Said  he :  "I  am  in  the  minority  now,  perhaps  ;  I  was 
"  two  months  since,  but  I  have  seen  cheering  evidences 
"  to  show  that  my  little  party  is  growing  apace,  and 
"  that  even  on  this  floor  my  cause  has  many  a  friend 
"  that  gentlemen  '  wot  not  of  But  whether  I  am  or 
''  not,  I  am  right,  and  time  will  prove  it." 

A  few  weeks  later  Alexander  White,  who  had  been 
elected  to  Congress  by  the  Whig  party  upon  the  Com- 
promise of  1850,  and  who  had  at  a  later  day  joined  the 
Democracy,   a  gentleman    who   generally  represented 


408      THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONPEDERACY. 

correctly  the  changes  in  the  popular  pulse,  published  a 
letter  in  which  he  opposed  the  policy  of  disunion.  By 
resorting  to  a  Southern  Union,  he  argued,  we  brought 
Canada  to  our  own  door.  The  institution  of  slavery 
being  restricted  to  the  Southern  Confederacy,  it  would 
gradually  retire  from  the  border  to  the  Gulf  States,  and 
soon  the  same  elements  of  discord  which  existed  in  the 
old  Union  would  be  found  rife  in  the  new.  Mr.  For- 
syte and  Mr.  White  represented  a  very  respectable 
portion  of  the  Democratic  party. 

Besides  what  was  afterwards  known  as  the  Douglas  De- 
mocracy, the  entire  Whig  party  at  the  beginning  of  this 
eventful  year,  was  in  opposition  to  the  spirit  of  the  resolu- 
tions of  the  General  Assembly.  It  was  as  late  as  Septem- 
ber 21  before  Mr.  Watts,  the  generally  recognized  leader 
of  the  Whigs,  announced  that  the  election  of  Mr.  Lin- 
coln would  justify  secession.  Gen.  Clanton,  who  was 
an  elector  for  Bell  and  Everett,  denounced  the  policy 
of  secession  in  a  hundred  speeches,  and  down  to  the 
day  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  election,  contended  that  neither 
forcible  resistance  to  his  administration  nor  disruption 
of  the  Union,  should  be  resorted  to  until  some  uncon- 
stitutional act  was  perpetrated. 

The  National  Democratic  Convention  met  at  Charles- 
ton, April  23,  1860.  On  the  following  day  a  com- 
mittee was  appointed,  consisting  of  a  delegate  from 
each  State,  selected  by  the  respective  State  delegations, 
to  report  resolutions  as  a  platform  for  the  party.  On 
the  27th  majority  and  minority  reports  were  made ; 
the  majority  report  accepting  the  Cincinnati  platform 
with  a  clause  explaining  the  doctrine  of  non-interven- 
tion as  the  South  desired  and  as  the  Dred  Scott 
decision  declared  it.     The  minority  report,  after  also 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.  409 

reaffirming  the  Cincinnati  platform,  proceeds  :  "  Inas- 
"  much  as  differences  of  opinion  exist  in  the  Demo- 
"  cratic  party  as  to  the  nature  and  extent  of  the 
"  powers  of  a  territorial  legislature,  and  as  to  the  powers 
"  and  duties  of  Congress,  under  the  Constitution  of  the 
"  United  States,  over  the  institution  of  slavery  in  the 
"  Territories,  Resolved,  That  the  Democratic  party  will 
"  abide  by  the  decisions  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the 
"  United  States  upon  questions  of  constitutional  law." 

The  Southern  delegates  held  that  this  minority  reso- 
lution was  too  vague  and  .indefinite  to  meet  the  case. 
It  failed  to  recognize  that  a  decision  had  already  been 
rendered  by  the  Court.  If  the  Northern  delegates 
intended  to  stand  by  that  decision,  it  was  impossible  to 
say  that  "  differences  of  opinion  "  existed  among  the 
Democracy  as  to  the  nature  and  extent  of  the  powers  of 
Congress  and  of  the  Territorial  Legislature  over  the 
institution  of  slavery.  It  was  moved  that  the  minority 
report  be  substituted  for  the  majority.  It  was  upon 
this  motion  that  Mr.  Yancey  addressed  the  Convention. 
His  reputation  as  an  orator  had  preceded  him.  On  the 
preceding  night  an  immense  crowd,  with  banners  and 
music,  had  waited  upon  him.  To  their  shouts  and 
huzzas  he  responded  only  with  an  excuse  for  not 
speaking.  He  was  at  the  chief  city  of  his  native  State. 
Around  him  were  the  abodes  of  a  proud,  intelhgent, 
high-spirited  people,  and  from  the  galleries  looked 
down  an  immense  concourse  of  fair  ladies  and  gallant 
gentlemen  who  sympathized  with  his  past  history  and 
his  present  labors.  The  occasion  and  the  scene  were 
enough  to  inspire  one  of  far  less  enthusiasm  and  nobility 
than  Yancey.     The  hour  and  the  man  had  met. 

Ascending  the  stand,  the  orator  had  pronounced  but 


410      THE  CEAbLB  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

a  few  of  his  well-weighed,  rounded  and  musical  sentences 
before  he  had  quieted  the  noise  and  confusion  which 
invariably  attends  the  collection  of  a  large  multitude  of 
men,  and  had  riveted  the  attention  of  every  eye  and 
mind.  Those  who  had  heard  of  him  as  an  agitator, 
yielded  their  objection  to  his  consuming  more  than  one 
hour  of  time  when  they  looked  upon  his  pleasant,  mild 
and  benignant  face.  Those  who  were  disposed  to 
clamor  against  the  disunionist,  became  silent  when  they 
gazed  upon  his  noble  presence.  The  angry  glance 
which  followed  him  from  those  who  had  regarded  him 
as  a  plotter  of  treason,  was  softened  to  tears  by  the 
pathos  of  the  most  perfect  voice  that  ever  aroused  a 
friendly  audience  to  a  frenzy  of  enthusiasm,  or  curbed 
to  silence  the  tumults  of  the  most  inimical. 

With  closely  woven  statements  of  fact  and  logical 
deduction,  with  graceful  gesture  and  melodious  tones, 
he  advanced,  vindicated  and  defended  the  cause  of  the 
South.  He  asked  for  nothing  but  the  recognition  of 
those  rights  which  the  highest  tribunal  had  declared  to 
belong  to  the  people  of  the  South,  Ever  and  anon 
the  audience  would  break  forth  in  the  wildest  applause, 
and  as  the  speaker  became  warm  in  his  subject,  and 
the  keen  reasoning  and  brilliant  illustrations  leaped  to 
his  lips,  the  responsive  shouts  of  approbation  and  the 
thunders  of  the  excited  multitude  became  so  frequent 
that  it  was  moved  by  a  delegate  that  the  galleries  be 
cleared.  ''  No,  no,"  was  cried  out  from  all  around, 
"  there  is  as  much  noise  upon  the  floor."  Captain 
Rynders,  of  New  York,  arose  and  shouted  that  if  they 
wished  to  prevent  applause  on  the  floor,  they  must 
stop  Mr.  Yancey  from  speaking  ;  a  piece  of  truthful 
wit  that  was  received  with  great  cheering  and  laughter.  . 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.      411 

The  peroration  of  his  magnificent  address  was 
worthy  of  the  man,  the  cause,  and  the  occasion. 
Said  he  : 

"  Gentlemen  of  the  Convention,  that  venerable,  that 
"  able,  that  revered  jurist,  the  honorable  Chief  Justice 
"'of  the  United  States,  trembling  upon  the  very  verge 
"  of  the  grave,  for  years  kept  merely  alive  by  the  pure 
"  spirit  of  patriotic  duty  that  burns  within  his  breast — 
"  a  spirit  that  will  not  permit  him  to  succumb  to  the 
"  gna wings  of  disease  and  the  weaknesses  of  mortality — 
"  which  hold  him,  as  it  were,  suspended  between  two 
"  worlds,  with  his  spotless  ermine  around  him,  standing 
"  upon  the  very  altar  of  Justice,  has  given  to  us  the 
"  utterance  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States 
"  upon  this  very  question.     [Applause.] 

"  Let  the  murmur  of  the  hustings  be  stilled — let  the 
"  voices  of  individual  citizens,  no  matter  how  great  and 
"respected  in  their  appropriate  spheres,  be  hushed, 
"  while  the  law,  as  expounded  by  the  constituted 
"  authority  of  the  country,  emotionless,  passionless  and 
"  just,  rolls  in  its  silvery  cadence  over'  the  entire  realm, 
"  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific,  and  from  the  ice- 
"  bound  regions  of  the  North  to  the  glittering  waters  of 
"  the  Gulf  [Loud  cheering.]  What  says  that  deci- 
"  sion  ?  That  decision  tells  you,  gentlemen,  that  the 
"  Territorial  Legislature  has  no  power  to  interfere  with 
"  the  rights  of  the  slave-owner  in  the  Territory  while 
"  in  a  Territorial  condition.  [Cheers.]  That  decision 
"  tells  that  this  Government  is  a  union  of  sovereign 
"  States ;  which  States  are  co-equal,  and  in  trust  for 
"  which  co-equal  States  the  Government  holds  the  Ter- 
'*  ritories.  It  tells  you  that  the  people  of  those  co-equal 
"  States  have  a  right  to  go  into  these  Territories,  thus 


412  TffiB  CRADLE  OF  TflE  CONFEDERACY. 

"  held  in  trust,  with  every  species  of  property  which  is 
^'  recognized  as  property  by  the  State  in  which  they 
"  live  or  by  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States.    The 
"venerable   Magistrate — the    Court    concurring  with 
"  him — decided  that  it  is  the  duty  of  this  Government  to 
"  afford  some  government  for  the  Territories  which  shall 
'*  be  in  accordance  with  this  trust,  with  this  delegated 
"  trust  power  held  for  the  States  and  for  the  people  of 
"  the  States.     That  decision  goes  still  further  ;  it  tells 
"  you  that  if  Congress  has  seen  fit,  for  its  own  conven- 
"ience,  and  somewhat  in  accordance  with  the  sympa- 
"  thies  and  instincts  and  genius  of  our  institutions,  to 
"  accord  a  form  of  government  to  the  people  of  the  Ter- 
"  ritories,  it  is  to  be  administered  precisely  as  Congress 
"  can  administer  it,  and  to  be  administered  as  a  trust 
"  for  the  co-equal  States  of  the  Union,  and  the  citizens 
"  of  those  States  who  choose  to  emigrate  to  those  Ter- 
'*  ritories.     That  decision  goes  on  to  tell  you  this :  that 
"  as  Congress  itself  is  bound  to  protect  the  property 
"  which  is  recognized  as  such  of  the  citizens  of  any  of 
"  the  States — as  Congress  itself  not  only  has  no  power, 
"  but  is  expressly  forbidden  to  exercise  the  power  to 
"  deprive  any  owner  of  his  property  in  the  Territories  ; 
"  therefore,  says  that  venerable,  that  passionless  repre- 
"  sentative  of  Justice,  who  yet  hovers  on  the  confines 
"  of  the  grave — therefore,  no  government  formed  by 
"  that  Congress  can  have  any  more  power  than  the 
"  Congress  that  created  it. 

"  But,  we  are  met  right  here  with '  the  assertion  :  we 
"  are  told  by  the  distinguished  advocate  of  this  doctrine 
"  of  popular^  sovereignty,  that  this  opinion  is  not  a 
"  decision  of  the  Supreme  Court,  but  merely  the  opinion 
«  of  citizen  Taney.     He  does  not  tell  you,  my  coun- 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.      413 

^*  try  men,  that  it  is  not  the  opinion  of  the  great  majority 
"  of  the  Supreme  Court,  bench.  Oh,  no  ;  but  he  tells 
"  you  that  it  is  a  matter  that  is  ohiter  dicta  outside  the 
"  jurisdiction  of  the  Court ;  in  other  words,  extra-judi- 
"  cial — that  it  is  simply  the  opinion  of  Chief  Justice 
"  Taney,  as  an  individual,  and  not  the  decision  of  the 
"  Court,  because  it  was  the  subject-matter  before  the 
"  Court.  Now,  Mr.  Douglas  and  all  others  who  make 
"  that  assertion  and  undertake  to  get  rid  of  the  moral, 
"  the  constitutional,  the  intellectual  power  of  argument, 
"  put  themselves  directly  in  conflict  with  the  venerable 
"  Chief  Justice  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United 
"  States,  and  with  the  recorded  decision  of  the  Court 
"  itself — because  Chief  Justice  Taney,  after  disposing 
"  of  the  demurrer  in  that  case,  undertook  to  decide  the 
"  question  upon  the  facts  and  the  merits  of  the  case  ; 
"  and,"  said  he,  "in  doing  that,  we  are  met  with  the  objec- 
"  tion  '  that  anything  we  may  say  upon  that  part  of 
"  the  case  will  be  extra-judicial  and  mere  ohiter  dicta' 
"  This  is  a  manifest  mistake,"  etc.,  "  and  the  Court — not 
"  Chief  Justice  Taney,  but  the  whole  Court,  with  but 
"  two  dissenting  voices— decided  that  it  was  not  ohiter 
"  dicta ;  that  it  was  exactly  in  point,  within  the  juris- 
"  diction  of  the  Court,  and  that  it  was  the  duty  of  the 
"  Court  to  decide  it.  Now  then,  who  shall  the  Democracy  * 
^*  recognize  as  authority  on  this  point — a  statesman,  no 
"  matter  how  brilliant,  and  able  and  powerful  in  intel- 
"  lect,  in  the  very  meridian  of  life — animated  by  an 
"ardent  and  consuming  ambition — struggling  as  no 
"  other  man  has  ever  done  for  the  high  and  brilliant 
"  position  of  candidate  for  the  Presidency  of  the  United 
"  States,  at  the  hand  of  his  great  party — or  that  old 
"and  venerable  jurist  who,  having  filled  his  years  with 


414      THE  OBADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

"  honor,  leaves  you  his  last  great  decision  before  step- 
"  ping  from  the  high  place  of  earthly  power  into  the 
"  grave  to  appear  before  his  Maker,  in  whose  presence 
"  deception  is  impossible,  and  earthly  position  as  dust  in 
"  the  balance  ?"     [Loud  and  continued  cheering.] 

Had  the  States  all  voted  as  units,  or  had  the  dele- 
gates all  voted  as  individuals,  the  majority  report  would 
have  been  sustained,  but  the  friends  of  Mr.  Douglas,  in 
the  Pennsylvania  delegation,  succeeded  in  obtaining  a 
rule  by  which  the  vote  of  each  individual  should  be 
expressed.  That  State  instead,  therefore,  of  casting 
twenty-seven  votes  for  the  majority  resolutions,  cast 
only  three.  The  minority  report  was  substituted  for 
the  majority,  and  when  the  vote  was  taken  upon  the 
vague  explanatory  resolution  accompanying  the  report, 
it  was  rejected  by  almost  a  unanimous  vote,  both  ele- 
ments of  the  party  looking  upon  it  as  a  subterfuge  and 
evasion. 

When  the  final  vote  on  the  last  clause  of  the  minori- 
ty report  was  announced,  and  the  Chair  declared  that  it 
was  carried;  the  dropping  of  a  pin  might  have  been 
heard  in  the  Convention.  E^ery  man,  woman  and 
child  within  the  vast  hall  in  which  the  delegates  assem- 
bled seemed  aware  that  a  great  crisis  had  arrived,  and 
that  events  were  about  to  occur  in  which  the  dearest 
interests  of  American  citizens  were  involved.  That 
great  and  hitherto  tumultuous  assemblage  seemed 
awed  into  silence  and  intent  suspense.  The  silence  was 
broken  by  Mr.  Leroy  Pope  Walker,  of  Alabama.  In 
a  few  terse  and  eloquent  renlarks  he  gave  his  reasons 
why  he  and  his  colleagues  could  not  accept  the  platform 
just  adopted  in  behalf  of  the  people  of  his  State,  and 
why,  under  these  circumstances,  the  Alabama  delega- 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.      415 

tion  deemed  it  their  imperative  duty  to  withdraw  from 
the  Convention.  No  sooner  had  Mr.  Walker  resumed 
his  seat,  having  discharged  this  solemn  task,  than  Mr. 
Barry,  of  Mississippi,  rose  to  his  feet,  and  read  a  paper 
setting  forth  the  reasons  why  the  delegation  of  his 
State  had  also  resolved  to  withdraw.  When  the  reading 
of  this  grave  act  of  secession  was  finished,  the  gallant 
and  eloquent  Colonel  Glenn,  of  Mississippi,  in  terms  of 
simple  eloquence,  intense  feelingj  and  conscious  dignity, 
which  touched  the  heart  of  every  one  of  the  thousands 
who  heard  him,  explained  why  the  Mississippi  delega- 
tion had  reluctantly  taken  so  serious  a  step.  Then 
arose  the  venerable  ex-Governor  Mouton,  of  Louisiana, 
who  declared  that  he  and  his  co-delegates  had  resolved 
to  withdraw  from  a  Convention  which  had  refiised  to 
acknowledge  the  great  fundamental  principle  of  the 
Democratic  party,  equality  of  the  States.  The  respec- 
tive chairmen  of  the  delegations  from  South  Carolina, 
Florida,  Arkansas,  and  Texas,  then  announced  that 
they  too,  would  withdraw,  and  caused  to  be  inserted  in 
the  minutes  of  the  Convention  their  several  protocols 
containing  the  reasons  which  impelled  them  to  do  so. 
There  was  no  swagger,  no  bluster.  There  were  no 
threats,  no  denunciations.  The  language  employed  by 
the  representatives  of  these  seven  independent  sover- 
eignties was  as  dignified  and  courteous  as  it  was  feeling. 
As  one  followed  the  other  in  quick  succession,  one  could 
see  the  entire  crowd  quiver  as  under  a  heavy  blow. 
Every  man  seemed  to  look  anxiously  at  his  neighbor  as 
if  enquiring  what  is  going  to  happen  next.  Down 
many  a  manly  cheek  flowed  tears  of  heartfelt  sorrow. 
A  pause  of  a  few  moments  ensued  after  Arkansas  had 
withdrawn,  and  people  were  beginning  to  resume  theh* 


416      THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

composure,  when  the  Senator  from  Delaware,  Mr. 
Bayard,  was  observed  to  enter  the  hall  and  proceed 
rapidly  up  the  central  aisle  towards  the  platform. 
When  he  uttered  the  words,  "  Mr.  Chairman,"  in  a 
voice  not  devoid  of  agitation,  although  resolute  in  tone, 
and  when  the  Chairman  responded,  "The  gentleman 
"  from  Delaware,  Mr.  Bayard,"  the  Convention  again 
held  their  breath,  not  knowing  what  course  that  high- 
minded  statesman  was  going  to  pursue  in  so  great  a 
crisis.  He  spoke  but  a  few  minutes.  His  language 
betrayed  the  deep  emotion  which  filled  his  patriotic 
breast.  He  represented  what  were  the  views  and 
sentiments  of  his  constituents;  stated  that  they 
accorded  with  those  of  the  delegations  which  had  with- 
drawn ;  that  he  had  been  sent  by  his  people  to  repre- 
sent them  in  a  great  National  Democratic  Convention 
wherein  delegates  from  all  the  States  of  the  Union  could 
sit  in  harmony  and  equality ;  and  that  as  the  Conven- 
tion no  longer  possessed  that  character,  he  and  his 
colleague,  Mr.  Whitely  would  withdraw,  confident  that 
their  action  would  be  sustained  at  home. 

When  all  the  seceding  delegations  had  retired,  it  is 
impossible  to  portray  the  dismay  of  those  by  whose 
conduct  that  grave  event  had  been  occasioned,  and 
when  a  motion  to  adjourn  was  made  it  was  readily 
assented  to. 

The  excitement  outside  was  intense.  Everybody 
asked  "  how  many  delegations  will  withdraw  to-morrow  ? 
"  What  will  the  seceding  delegations  do  ?"  The  whole 
town  was  on  foot,  and  unqualified  approval  of  the 
action  of  the  retiring  delegates  expressed  to  applauding 
crowds  at  every  street  corner.  An  informal  meeting 
of  the  seceders  for  consultation-  was  held  at  St.  An- 


THE  CBADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.      417 

drew's  Hall  the  next  day,  when  it  was  resolved  that 
they  should  assemble  at  the  Military  Hall  and  organize, 
and  then  await  the  action  of  the  Convention  before  they 
determined  on  their  future  proceedings.  An  immense 
mass  meeting  was  held  in  front  of  the  City  Hall,  which 
was  addressed  by  the  Hon.  L.  Q.  C.  Lamak,  of  Missis- 
sippi, Mr.  Yancey,  and  other  prominent  Democrats,  in 
able  and  stirring  speeches. 

On  the  tenth  day  of  its  session,  after  ineffectual 
balloting,  the  Convention  adjourned  to  meet  at  Balti- 
more June  18th. 

Before  adjourning,  the  Virginia  delegation  had  con- 
ferred with  the  Southern  delegates  as  to  the  best  mode 
of  restoring  harmony.  In  consequence,  Mr.  Howard, 
of  Tennessee,  stated  to  the  Convention  that  "  he  had  a 
"  proposition  to  present  in  behalf  of  the  delegates  from 
"  Tennessee,  whenever,  under  parliamentary  rules,  it 
"  would  be  proper  to  present  it."  He  should  propose 
the  following  :  Resolved^  That  the  citizens  of  the 
United  States  have  an  equal  right  to  settle  with  their 
property  in  the  Territories  of  the  United  States ;  and 
that  under  the  decision  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the 
United  States,  which  we  recognize  as  the  correct  expo- 
sition of  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  neither 
the  rights  of  persons  or  property  can  be  destroyed  or 
impaired  by  Congressional  or  Territorial  Legislation. 
Mr.  Russell,  of  Virginia,  informed  the  Convention  that 
this  resolution,  he  believed,  received  the  approbation  ot 
all  the  delegations  from  the  Southern  States  which 
remained  in  the  Convention,  and  also  the  approbation 
of  the  delegation  from  New  York.  He  was  informed 
that  there  was  strength  enough  to  pass  it  when  in  order. 
Mr.  Howard  in  vain  attempted  to  get  a  vote  upon  it. 


418      THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

The  friends  of  Mr.  Douglas  interposed  objections  of 
order,  and  no  vote  was  ever  taken  upon  it,  either  at 
Charleston  or  Baltimore. 

That  portion  of  the  old  Whig  party  which  had  pre- 
served a  show  of  organization,  and  had  steadily  refused 
to  yield  to  the  policy  of  the  Republican  party  on  the 
one  hand,  and  that  of  the  Democratic  on  the  other,  met 
in  Convention  at  Baltimore  May  9th,  assumed  the 
name  of  "  Constitutional  Union  "  party,  and  nominated 
John  Bell,  for  President,  and  Edward  Everett,  for 
Vice-President.  They  adopted  no  platform  of  princi- 
ples, presenting  their  candidates  to  the  people  in  the 
spirit  of  Whig  Conservatism,  and  simply  upon  their 
records  as  lovers  of  the  Union  and  respecters  of  the 
rie;hts  of  the  States. 

The  opponents  of  the  Democratic  party  in  Alabama 
believed  that,  as  in  1868,  when  Mr.  Yancey  advanced 
the  demand  for  and  a  repeal  of  the  law  making  the 
African  slave  trade  piracy,  on  the  ground  that  in 
pressing  it  as  an  issue  there  would  be  one  more  link 
between  the  Southern  man  and  the  Southern  man,  and 
one  more  link  broken  between  the  Southern  man  and 
the  Northern  man,  so  now  in  aiding  thus  materially  to 
break  up  the  Democratic  party  upon  the  Territorial 
abstraction,  by  advising  and  urging  the  withdrawal  of 
the  Alabama  delegation,  the  object  of  the  States-Rights 
leaders  was  to  let  the  administrntion  pass  into  the  hands 
of  the  Republican  party  as  the  final  step  towards  disso- 
lution. They  believed  that  the  States-Rights  party 
wanted  disunion,  not  because  of  any  practical  restric- 
tion of  the  rights  of  the  Southern  citizen,  but  because 
the  desire  for  a  Southern  Confederacy,  growing  out  of 
an  accumulation  of  petty  defeats  upon  immateiial  and 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.      419 

disputed  questions  of  public  policy,  had  become  so  cher- 
ished, intensified  and  attractive  as  to  shut  fi-om  their 
view  the  weakness  of  such  a  Confederacy,  the  dangers 
of  civil  war  and  the  horrors  of  defeat. 

An  "  Opposition  "  meeting,  in  which  most  of  the  old 
Whigs  participated,  was  held  at  Montgomery,  June  19. 
It  endorsed  the  principles  of  the  Dred  Scott  Decision, 
and  appointed  delegates  to  a  State  Convention  to 
assemble  July  2.  Meantime  various  counties  of  the 
State  had  appointed  delegates  to  a  "  Constitutional 
"  Union  "  Convention  to  meet  at  Selma,  June  21,  for  the 
ratification  of  the  nomination  of  Bell  and  Everett.  In 
this  latter  Convention  appeared  the  rank  and  file  of  ' 
the  old  Whig  party.  This  Convention  ratified  the 
action  of  the  Constitutional  Union  Convention  at  Balti- 
more, endorsed  the  principles  of  the  Dred  Scott  Decision, 
accepted  Mr.  Bell  upon  his  record  in  the  Senate, 
and  endorsed  Mr.  Everett  upon  his  action  with  refer- 
ence to  the  Compromise  of  1850. 

A  "  States-Rights  Opposition  "  Convention  assembled 
at  Montgomery,  July  2.  Delegates  were  present  from 
but  seven  counties,  and  among  them  but  few  men  of 
prominence.  They  adopted  resolutions  stating  that  the 
question  of  protecting  slave  property  in  the  Territories 
was  the  paramount  question  before  the  country,  and 
that  no  other  party  in  Alabama  except  their  own  had 
avowed  in  their  platform,  until  a  recent  day,  the  duty 
of  Congress  to  afford  such  protection.  Many  delegates 
to  this  Convention  believed  the  time  had  come  for  the 
establishment  of  a  party  representing  a  united  South, 
and  were  disposed  to  act  with  the  seceders  fi-om  the 
Charleston  Convention.  The  Douglas  party  having 
preserved  the  forms  and  organization  of  the  National 


420      THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

Democracy,  it  was  hoped  that  the  seceders  would  now 
unite  with  the  States-Rights  opposition  in  a  sectional 
party.     Following  out  the  line  of  the  argument  they 
had  maintained   for   four   years,  it  was  now   mooted 
whether  this  portion  of  the  "  States-Rights  Opposition  " 
should  not  pronounce  for  the  candidates  of  the  seceders  ; 
and  so  we  find  them  declaring  it  their  duty,  "  not  as 
"  Democrats,   but  merely   as    determined   friends    of 
"  Southern  equahty  and  Southern  institutions,  and  as 
"  allies  of  those  who,  by  placing  their  nominees  upon  a 
"  platform  substantially   asserting  our  own   long-cher- 
"  ished  principles  of  protection  to  slave  property  in  the 
"  Territories,  have  given  signal  proof  of  their  devotion  to 
"  Southern  equality  and  Southern  institutions,  to  support 
"  Breckinridge  and  Lane,  if  in  thek  letters  of  acceptance 
"  of  their  nomination,  or  otherwise,   they  give   their 
'^  unqualified  sanction  to  the  platform  upon  which  they 
"  have  been  nominated."     Mr.  Watts  moved  to  amend 
the  resolution  by  a  proposition  to  write  to  Messrs.  Bell 
and  Everett,  and  to  support  the  Constitutional  Union 
candidates  if  they  abide  by  the  principles  expressed  in 
the  platform.     Upon  a  vote  by  counties,  Montgomery 
county  voted  for   Mr.   Watts'   amendment,   and  the 
remaining  counties  against  it.     In  no  sense  was  this  a 
representative  vote.     Its  effect,  however,  was  to  draw 
fi:om  Mr.  Bell  a  fi:action  of  the  old  Whigs  led  by  men 
of  strength  like  Judge,   Chilton,    and    Rice.      The 
majority  of  Mr.  Breckinridge  over  his  two  competitors 
in  Alabama  was  but  seven  thousand.     Had  the  Whigs 
remained  united  upon  Mr.  Bell,  it  is  more  than  proba- 
ble that  a  majority  of  votes  in  the  State  would  have 
been  cast  against  Mr.  Breckinridge.      It  might  be 
difficult  to  understand  how  this  Opposition  Convention 


TtiE  CRABLE  OF  THE  CONFEDEItACY.  421 

could,  upon  principle,  arrive  at  the  conclusion  to  support 
Mr.  Breckinridge  to  the  exclusion  of  Mr.  Bell.  On 
all  other  questions  than  that  of  slavery  in  the  Territo- 
ries, their  associations  and  traditions  had  been  with  the 
latter  rather  than  the  former.  Why,  then,  upon  "  the 
"  paramount  question  "  could  they  not  give  Mr.  Bell 
an  opportunity  to  claim  their  votes  by  defining  his 
position  ?  The  only  solution  of  the  movement  must 
be  found  in  the  profound  conviction  which  had  seized 
upon  the  minds  of  many  hitherto  devoted  Whigs,  that 
any  attempt  to  keep  alive  a  separate  organization, 
under  whatever  name,  must  prove  futile  and  could  only 
embarrass  the  position  of  the  South.  Such  a  party 
could  expect  no  electoral  votes  except  at  the  South. 
It  was,  therefore,  in  the  opinion  of  the  Convention, 
powerless  for  good,  and  might  be  productive  of  injury. 
Mr.  Watts  thought  differently.  In  his  opinion  there 
would  probably  be  no  election  by  the  people,  and  Mr. 
Bell  would  receive  electoral  votes  sufficient  to  make 
him  one  of  the  three  candidates  before  the  House.  As 
neither  Douglas  nor  Breckinridge  could  control  the 
House,  it  was  his  hope  and  belief  that  the  discordant 
elements  adverse  to  Mr.  Lincoln  would  finally  concen- 
trate upon  Mr.  Bell.  In  reply  to  a  letter  addressed 
to  him  by  Mr.  Watts,  Mr.  BeU  enclosed  for  his  inspec- 
tion certain  of  his  speeches  with  paragraphs  marked, 
stating  that  these  speeches  were  full  and  explicit 
answers  to  the  questions  asked  him.  Mr.  Watts  pub- 
lished a  letter,  July  30,  in  which  he  said  : 

"  Mr.  Bell  thus  distinctly  announces,  in  my  judg- 
"  ment,  the  following  propositions — 

"  1.  A  distinct  repudiation  of  Wilmot  Provisoism. 


422      THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDEEACY. 

'^  2.  A  distinct  repudiation  of  squatter  sovereignty 
"  as  long  ago  as  1848. 

"  3.  A  distinct  announcement  that  the  Territories 
"  are  common  property  of  the  States  composing  the 
"  Union,  and  that  the  citizens  of  each  State  have  the 
"  right  to  go  into  such  Territories  with  their  property 
"  of  every  description,  and  while  there  to  have  protec- 
"  tion  to  property  and  person."  * 

The  Democratic  Executive  Committee  having  called 
a  convention,  that  body  assembled  at  Montgomery 
early  in  June.  On  the  same  day,  and  at  the  same 
place,  assembled  a  Douglas  Convention.  Both  bodies 
nominated  fiiU  electoral  tickets,  the  one  endorsing  the 
action  of  its  delegates  to  Charleston  and  authorizing 
them  to  meet  the  seceders  at  Richmond ;  the  other 
condemning  the  secession  at  Charleston,  recognizing 
the  Douglas  wing  as  the  proper  organized  National 
Convention,  and  appointing  delegates  to  act  with  that 
Convention  at  Baltimore. 

On  the  18th  of  June  the  Douglas  fragment  of  the 
Democratic  Convention  met  at  Baltimore.  The  Stat« 
of  New  York  was  now  ready  to  adopt  the  resolution  of 
Mr.  Howard,  and  had  the  seceders  taken  their  seats 
the  Convention  and  party  might  have  harmonized. 
The  seceders  adjourned  from  Richmond  to  Baltimore, 
but  the  first  act  of  the  Douglas  men  was  to  declare  the 
seats  of  the  seceders  vacant,  and  to  admit  the  new  dele- 
gates who  had  been  lately  appointed  by  Douglas  Con- 
ventions. Thereupon  Virginia,  North  Carolina,  Ten- 
nessee, Kentucky,  Maryland,  California,  Oregon,  and 
Arkansas  withdrew  from  the  Convention  and  joined  the 
seceders.  They  were  accompanied  by  Mr.  Cushing, 
President   of  the  Convention,  and  five  more  of  the 


THE  CEABLe'  of  THE  CONPEDBRACY.  423 

Massachusetts  delegates.  The  seceders  now  represented 
twenty  States — and  all  that  were  certain  to  give  Demo- 
cratic majorities. 

After  the  adoption  by  the  seceders  of  the  majority 
report  which  had  been  presented  at  Charleston,  and 
the  nomination  of  Mr.  Breckinridge,  loud  calls  were 
made  for  Mr.  Yancey.  Amidst  great  applause  that 
gentleman  ascended  the  platform  and  addressed  the 
Convention  with  his  usual  force  and  fire.  Rehearsing 
the  events  which  had  transpired,  and  defending  the 
principles  of  the  majority  report  as  the  only  basis  of  a 
Constitutional  Union  founded  on  the  equality  of  the 
States,  he  said : 

"  I  congratulate  you,  Mr.  President,  the  representa- 
i*  tive  of  the  National  States-Rights  Democracy,  and 
"  you,  venerable  gentlemen,  who  sit  here  as  the  repre- 
"sentatiyes  of  your  several  sovereign  States,  and 
"  gentlemen,  who  are  the  delegates  of  the  Democracy — 
*'  you,  who  are  the  stern  and  true  fi:iends  of  the  old- 
"  fashioned  National  Democracy,  that  there  is  yet  in 
"  existence  an  organization  pledged  to  uphold  and 
'^  revere  our 'beloved  Constitution,  and  through  it  to 
"  uphold  the  Union.  [Applause.]  Accept  these  con- 
"  gratulations  at  the  hands  of  one  who  has,  through  the 
"  assiduous  and  wily  influence  of  our  common  enemies, 
"  acquired  a  reputation  for  being  factious  and  disrup- 
"  tionary — for  being  a  disunionist.  Accept  that 
**  congratulation  at  the  hands  of  one  who,  some  nine  or 
*'  ten  years  ago,  desired  and  endeavored  to  obtain  a 
"  disruption  of  this  Union,  because  he  believed  then,  as 
"  he  believes  now,  that  there  was  a  then  existing  cause 
"  why  that  Union  should  have  been  dissolved — because 
"  the  Constitution  had  been  violated  in  the  admission  of 


424      THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

'^  California  into  the  Union  upon  the  principle  of 
"  ^  squatter  sovereignty,'  and  because  the  internal  slave 
"trade  between  the  District  of  Columbia  and  the 
^"  States  had  been  destroyed  by  Congressional  legisla- 
*'  tion,  by  that  act  initiating  the  great  policy  of  abolition. 
"  I  went  before  the  people  of  the  State  of  Alabama, 
"  and  asked  of  them  if  they  would  secede  from  a 
*^  Union  that  had  thus  forgotten  to  observe  its  pledges. 
"  She  thought  it  fit  in  her  wisdom  to  decline,  and  voted 
"  down  the  seceding  party.  From  that  day  to  this  I 
"  have  urged  no  measure  of  dissolution,  but  I  have 
"  bowed  in  submission  to  the  will  of  the  State,  to  which 
"  I  owe  my  allegiance.  From  that  day  to  this,  under 
"  all  these  wrongs,  I  have  not  urged  them  as  a  sufficient 
"  cause  why  the  Union  shall  be  dissolved — and  though 
''  injustice  and  wrong  has  since  been  done  to  my 
"  section,  yet  they  are  not  of  that  character  which,  of 
"  themselves,  call  for  disunion.  And  when  it  has  been 
"  stated,  for  the  purpose  of  injuring  the  cause  with 
"  which  I  am  connected,  that  I  am  urging  my  friends 
"  to  disunion,  and  to  the  disruption  of  the  Democratic 
"  party,  that  has  been  stated  that  is  utterly  false  as  an 
"  inference  and  false  in  itself  [Applause.]  There  is 
"  nothing  that  I  have  done  or  said  in  the  progress  of 
"  measures  leading  to  organization  for  this  canvass, 
"  nothing  that  actuates  me,  no  motive  of  mine  that  can, 
"  with  fairness,  be  so  construed.  Whenever  the  time 
"  comes  in  which  a  wrong  shall  be  done  to  the  section 
"  in  which  I  live ;  which  is  palpably  and  clearly,  done 
"  with  a  view  of  wronging  that  section — a  wrong  that 
"  shall  effect  its  honor  and  equality,  I  shall  endeavor  to 
"be,  as  I  was  in  1851,  among  the  first  to  raise  the 
'*  banner  of  State  secession.     Until  cause  for  that  event 


tflE  CRAjDLI^  of  the   CONFEDERACY  425 

"  occurs,  I  here  and  elsewhere,  shall  rally  under  the 
"  banner  of  the  Democracy  and  of  the  Constitution." 
[Applause.] 

It  is  interesting  in  this  connection  to  recall  an  inci'- 
dent  as  illustrating  how  utterly  careless  were  illustrious 
politicians  as  to  the  question  over  which  they  were 
dividing  parties  and  imperiling  the  country  In 
passing  through  Washington  Mr.  Yancey  was  the  guest 
of  Mr.  PuGH,  a  member  of  Congress  from  Alabama. 
While  at  Mr.  Pugh's  house  he  was  visited  by  Mr.  S. 
S.  Baxter,  of  Tenn.,  and  H.  W.  Fisher,  of  Virginia, 
both  of  whom  in  published  letters  afterwards,  testified 
to  the  correctness  of  the  conversation  which  occured 
between  themselves  and  Mr.  Geo.  N.  Sanders,  of  New 
York,  who  stepped  in  during  their  visit.  Mr.  Sanders 
was  a  shrewd  politician  of  some  note,  and  had  held  the 
important  position  of  Consul  to  London  under  President 
Pierce.  Mr.  Yancey  said  the  Vice-Presidency  had 
been  offered  him  by  the  friends  of  Mr.  Douglas  if  he 
would  bring  about  a  reconciliation  between  the  factions. 
Mr.  Sanders  had  made  the  offer,  it  was  said,  with  the 
knowledge  and^  consent  of  Mr.  Douglas.  During  this 
conversation  Mr.  Sanders  urged  Mr.  Yancey  to  accept, 
and  suggested  that  Mr.  Douglas  would  die  in  six 
months  after  his  inauguration,  when  the  whole  question 
would  be  solved.  Mr.  Fisher  repeated  this  conversa- 
tion in  a  public  speech  at  Baltimore,  and  his  statement 
was  not  denied. 


OHEA-PTER   XVI. 


The  Canvass  in  Alabama — Assaults  tipon  Yancey — Posi- 
tion of  the  Three  Contestants — Yancey^ s  Canvass  of  the 
West  and  North — His  Arrival  at  Memphis — Reception 
at  Knoxville — /Speech  at  Washington — Attempted  Fti- 
Mon  in  New  York — His  Speech  in  Faneuil  Hall — At 
Lexington — At  New  Orleans — Return  of  Yancey  and 
Visit  of  Douglas  to  Montgomery^  Etc.,  Etc. 


MrPresident:  "Jf  you  wish  to  put  a  stop  to  cheering  and  appiause 
upon  this  floor,  you  must  stop  Mr.  Yancey  from  speaking."— [Rynders  in 
the  Charleston  Convention. 

"  Your  policy  in  this  great  crjs's  of  a  final  struggle  between  the  South 
and  its  foes  is  mad  and  suicidal  in  the  last  degree.  It  is  to  risk  everything 
for  nothing.  It  is  to  annihilate  the  only  living  power  that  can  defend 
us,  and  to  consummate  a  ruin  of  Southern  hopes  and  prospects,  under 
which  your  own  favorite  abstraction  of  'protection '  will  be  the  first  and 
deepest  buried.  Do  you  expect  to  obtain  congressional  protection  for 
slavery  in  the  Territories  by  electing  William  H.  Seward  President?"— 
[Public  Letter  of  John  Forsyth. 

The  political  campaign  was  now  opened.  The  Whig 
candidates  for  Presidential  Electors  attacked  the  Doug- 
las Democracy  because  of  their  squatter  sovereignty 
principles,  and  the  Breckinridge  Democracy  because  of 
their  disunion  tendencies.  In  Alabama  the  opinions 
and  declarations  of  Mr.  Yancey  became  the  special 
target  for  the  opposition.  It  was  argued  that  Mr. 
Yancey  was  a  pronounced  secessionist  in  1851,  and 
that  he  was  still  a  disunionist.  It  was  true  he  now 
denied  that  he  was  a  disunionist ;  but  he  made  the 
same  denial  then.  Then  it  was  that  he  organized  and 
harangued  the  States-Rights  Associations ;  but  yester- 
day he  was  organizing  and  harangueing  the  Leagues  of 


4^8      THE  CRADLE  OP  THE  CONFEDERAdY. 

United  Southerners.  Ten  years  ago  he  was  for  in- 
structing the  South  in  the  principles  of  States-Rights, 
and  admonishing  them  not  to  be  trammelled  by  ties  of 
parties.  Two  years  ago  he  was  for  instructing  the 
Southern  mind  in  the  same  direction,  for  firing  the 
Southern  heart  and  precipitating  the  cotton  States  into 
revolution.  This  being  precipitated  into  revolution 
could  mean  nothing  more  nor  less  than  separate  State 
secession  upon  the  election  of  a  Republican  President. 
In  his  speech  at  the  Commercial  Convention,  Mr. 
Yancey  had  said  that  the  election  of  a  President  under 
the  forms  of  the  Constitution  by  the  Republican  party, 
would  not  of  itself  justify  secession ;  and  he  had  said 
in  his  Baltimore  speech  that  there  had  been  no  injustice 
and  wrong  since  1850  which  would  justify  disunion. 
The  principles  of  the  States-Rights  party  were  those  of 
the  Virginia  resolutions  of  '98,  which  declared  that  the 
injustice  and  wrong  which  authorized  secession  on  the 
part  of  a  State,  must  be  "  a  deliberate,  palpable  and 
"  dangerous  exercise "  of  powers  not  granted  by  the 
"  compact."  The  power  of  electing  such  a  President 
as  they  prefer,  is  one  of  those  undisputed  powers  which 
could  not  be  denied  to  the  States.  Alabama,  there- 
fore,  had  no  justification  to  secede  simply  upon  the 
election  of  a  RepubHcan  President,  and  well  had  Mr. 
Yancey  spoken  of  such  a  purpose  as  "revolution." 
She,  together  with  the  entire  South,  declared  by  large 
majorities  that  the  injustice  and  wrong  of  the  Compro- 
mise Measures  of  1850  were  not  sufficient  cause,  and 
Mr.  Yancey  had  publicly  declared  that  since  that  day 
the  injustice  and  wrong  done  his  section  was  not  suffi- 
cient to  justify  disunion.  Such  being  the  case,  said 
the  Unionists,  it  would  seem  the  duty  of  patriots,  the 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.  429 

interest  of  men  who  yearn  for  continued  peace  and 
prosperity,  that  the  State  should  not  be  dragged  into 
the  suicidal  policy  of  South  Carolina,  that  the  people  of 
Alabama  were  in  danger,  was  evidenced  by  the  actions 
and  schemes  of  Mr.  Yancey  and  his  peculiar  friends. 
He  had  brought  about  the  disruption  of  the  Charleston 
Convention  by  procuring  from  the  Alabama  Democratic 
Convention  instructions  that  delegates  should  withdraw 
in  a  certain  contingency.  He  had  been  largely  instru- 
mental in  obtaining  from  the  General  Assembly  a  call 
for  a  State  Convention  in  the  event  of  Lincoln's  elec- 
tion, and  a  declaration  that  his  administration  would  be 
resisted.  He  had  fired  the  Southern  heart  by  obtain- 
ing this  declaration  for  disunion  from  the  representatives 
of  the  people,  and  he  was  now  for  precipitating  the 
State  into  secession.  He  wanted  no  delay,  no  reflec- 
tion, no  waiting  for  co-operative  action.  Co-operation 
would  bring  delay,  and  delay  would  cool  the  passions 
and  fortify  reason.  Success  for  his  schemes  depended 
upon  precipitation,  and  precipitation  would  result  in 
ruin. 

The-  old  Whig  leaders  believed  that  there  was  a  pos- 
sibility of  the  election  of  Mr.  Bell  by  the  people. 
There  was  certainly  no  hope  for  the  election  of  Mr. 
Douglas  or  Mr.  Breckinridge.  It  was  probable  that 
the  names  of  Lincoln,  Bell,  and  Breckinridge  would 
go  to  the  House.  In  that  event  Mv.  Bell  had  an 
excellent  chance  of  being  put  into  the  Presidency  as  a 
compromise  man,  since  the  Douglas  and  Lincoln  Rep- 
resentatives would  prefer  to  elect  him  before  the  4th  of 
March  rather  than  see  the  President  of  the  Senate 
assume  the  Presidency  of  the  United  States  after  that 
day.     Gen.  Clanton,  everywhere  throughout  the  Dis- 


430      THE  CRADLE  OP  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

trict,  the  same  old  District  which  had  so  often  witnessed 
the  defeat  of  the  States-Rights  party,  held  that,  should 
Mr.  Lincoln  be  elected,  his  administration  ought  to  be 
submitted  to  until  it  committed  some  unconstitutional 
act.  He  showed  that  the  President  could  do  nothing 
unless  backed  by  Congress,  that  the  Senate  would  be 
against  him,  and  in  all  probability  the  House  also,  and 
that  the  Supreme  Court  were  against  his  political  views. 
Lincoln  would  be  utterly  powerless  if  elected.  Any 
appointment  he  might  make  must  be  confirmed  by  a 
Democratic  Senate  ;  why,  then,  need  we  apprehend 
any  danger  from  a  President  who  would  have  the  sup- 
port of  neither  a  majority  of  the  voters  of  the  Union 
nor  of  any  of  the  Departments  of  the  Government  ? 
Was  this  the  powerless  object  before  which  the  Union 
must  be  rent  in  twain  ?  This  was  not  submission  to 
Black  Republican  rule,  as  it  was  termed.  It  was  obedi- 
ence to  the  Constitution  and  submission  to  the  Gov- 
ernment of  the  United  States,  which  would  still  be,  for 
all  practical  purposes,  in  the  hands  of  the  South, 
through  the  preponderance-  of  Southern  Senators  among 
those  who  would  be  in  opposition  to  Mr.  Lincoln. 

Mr.  John  F.  Conoley,  the  Douglas  elector  for  the 
Third  District,  maintained  that  the  nomination  of  Mr. 
Douglas  was  the  only  regular  Democratic  nomination. 
Why,  he  argued,  had  the  opponents  of  Mr.  Douglas 
insisted  upon  an  explanatory  clause  to  the  Cincinnati 
platform  ?  Had  not  the  Supreme  Court  sufficiently 
explained  what  the  Cincinnati  platform  meant  by  non- 
intervention ?  Mr.  Yancey,  in  his  powerful  argument 
at  Charleston,  had  proved  beyond  the  power  of  refiita- 
tion,  that  "squatter  sovereignty"  was  not  in  the  Kansas 
Bill.    By  reference  to  the  Died  Scott  case,  he  had 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.      451 

also  proved  that  it  could  not  by  any  possibility  be  in 
any  other  Territorial  Bill.  By  the  same  argument  he 
had  showed  that  it  could  not  be  in  the  Cincinnati 
platform.  Then  why  had  he  insisted  upon  a  change  of 
platform  even  to  the  disruption  of  the  party  and  the 
Union  ?  Was  it  because  a  fraction  of  ^he  party 
denied  the  construction  of  the  Court  ?  That  faction 
could  hardly  cast  a  Democratic  electoral  vote.  It  was 
too  weak  and  impotent  to  justify  alarm.  But  granting 
that  the  election  of  Douglas  would  enure  to  the  success 
of  what  is  known  as  squatter  sovereignty,  was  there 
anything  alarming  in  that  doctrine  ?  Under  it,  it  was 
admitted,  slavery  had  an  unrestricted  right  of  expan- 
sion and  would  go  wherever  the  people  wanted  it. 
Squatters  had  carried  it  to  Tennessee,  Kentucky,  Mis- 
souri, Alabama,  Mississippi,  and  Arkansas,  without  any 
law  to  protect  it,  and  to  Texas  against  a  law  prohibit- 
ing it.  Under  this  doctrine  it  could  and  would  be 
carried  to  all  countries  where  climate,  soil,  productions 
and  population  would  allow.  Non-intervention  is  thus 
regulated  by  natural  laws,  and  no  Act  of  Congress  could 
carry  it  into  any  Territory  against  those  laws.  If  we 
have  not  the  population  to  compete  with  the  North  in 
the  colonization  of  Territories,  no  Act  of  Congress 
could  cure  the  difficulty.  What  was  the  objection  to 
Douglas  ?  Was  it  that  the  nomination  was  not  by  a 
two-thirds  vote  ?  Mr.  Douglas  received  more  than 
two  thirds  of  those  who  voted.  Never  in  the  history  of 
Democratic  Conventions  had  it  been  held  that  the 
candidate  should  receive  a  number  equal  to  two-thirds 
of  all  the  electoral  votes.  Two-thirds  of  a  House  means 
two-thirds  of  the  voting  members,  and  not  two-thirds  of 
all  the  members.     Was  the  objection  to  the  platform  ? 


482      THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

The  platform  was  the  same  that  was  considered  broad 
enough  in  1856  for  the  whole  Union.  Was  the  objec- 
tion to  the  man  who  led  the  ticket  ?  If  Mr.  Douglas 
had  offended,  it  was  alone  upon  the  question  how  far  a 
territorial  legislature  may  constitutionally  impair  the 
right  or  ^usefulness  of  any  kind  of  property  by  any 
system  of  laws  they  may  enact.  This  point  of  differ- 
ence between  Mr.  Douglas  and  others  did  not  involve 
a  question  of  the  equality  of  the  States  in  the  Union  or 
any  pri^iciple  essential  to  our  security.  The  people  of 
the  Territory  were  the  ultimate  disposers  of  the  whole 
question.  They  could  manage  it  better  than  Congress 
could.  Mr.  DoJGLAS  was  for  removing  the  slavery 
agitation  from  the  halls  of  Congress.  His  opponents 
were  for  continuing  and  increasing  the  agitation  by 
calling  upon  those  in  Congress  whose  prejudices  were  all 
against  slavery,  to  enable  them  in  enacting  slave  codes. 
Could  there  be  peace  when  such  demands  were  made 
by  the  South  ?  The  seceders  knew  that  such  demands 
would  be  rejected,  and  that  the  rejection  would  be  made 
the  pretence  for  disunion.  There  was  no  mode  of 
quieting  the  slavery  question  or  securing  peace  to  the 
country  except  by  the  policy  of  Mr.  Douglas.  So 
spoke  the  candidates  for  the  Electoral  College. 

During  the  progress  of  the  canvass  it  became  appa- 
rent that  Mr.  Lincoln  would  be  elected  unless  the  States 
of  New  York  and  Pennsylvania  could  be  carried  against 
him  by  a  fusion  of  all  the  Conservative  elements.  The 
Republicans,  in  order  to  prevent  such  fusion,  and  to 
weaken  the  strength  of  Mr.  Breckinridqb,  made  free 
use  of  the  name,  opinions  and  published  sentiments  of 
Mr.  Yancey.  The  newspapers  had  published  what  pur- 
ported to  be  a  copy  of  the  constitution  of  the  *'  League 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.      433 

"  of  United  Southerners,"  which  declared  that  its  object 
was  to  break  up  the  Union.  Mr.  Yancey  thereupon 
wrote  a  letter  to  the  Democracy  of  Tennessee,  July  19, 
presenting  a  true  copy  of  the  League  Constitution,  and 
stating  that  its  declared  object  was  to  preserve  the 
rights  of  the  South  in  the  Union,  or  failing  in  that, 
**a  prompt  resistance  on  the  next  aggression."  He 
stated  that  the  establishment  of  the  League  had  been 
first  recommended  by  the  Advertiser  newspaper  of  Mont- 
gomery, that  its  first  meeting  had  been  organized  by 
himself,  Chas.  G.  Gunter,  and  J.  C.  B.  Mitchell  of  that 
place,  that  but  three  chapters  had  ever  been  formed ; 
that  its  sessions  were  open,  and  that  the  people,  not 
approving,  it  had  long  since  been  discontinued.  The 
notable  part  of  this  letter  is  the  admission  by  Mr. 
Yancey  that,  while  not  favoring  disunion  in  1858,  he 
was  for  prompt  resistance  on  the  next  aggression  ;  and 
yet  at  Baltimore  he  had  asserted  that  nothing  had 
occurred  since  1858  to  justify  secession,  and  at  the 
Commercial  Convention  he  had  declared  that  the  elec- 
tion of  a  Republican  President  would  not  alone  jus- 
tify it. 

The  important  part  which  Yancey  had  played  at 
the  Convention  which  had  nominated  Mr.  BRECKiNRmGE, 
and  the  wide-spread  denunciations  of  him  as  a  disun- 
ionist  at  the  North,  induced  his  party  friends  to  urge 
upon  him  the  duty  of  making  addresses  at  as  many  of 
the  prominent  cities  as  time  would  permit.  After  sev- 
eral addresses  in  Alabama  among  those  who  had  been 
accustomed  to  hear  him,  his  first  speech  outside  of  the 
State  was  made  at  Memphis.  During  the  day,  upon  the 
evening  of  which  he  was  to  address  the  people  there, 
the  railroad  trains  and  country  road  wagons  and  car- 


434  *    THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

riages  poured  into  the  city  a  host  of  people,  some  to 
applaud  as  a  patriot,  some  to  hiss  as  a  traitor,  the 
most  widely  criticised  man  in  the  Union.  The  excite- 
ment was  intense.  Threats  to  mob  him  was  indulged 
in  openly  by  heated  partisans,  and  the  audience 
appeared  so  largely  his  enemy  that  many  of  his  friends 
advised  him  not  to  speak.  There  never  was  a  braver 
man  than  Yancey.  There  never  was  a  crowd  which 
could  silence  or  intimidate  him.  There  never  was  a 
passion-tossed  audience  which  he  could  not  curb  or 
control.  On  this  occasion  the  immense  audience,  sup- 
posed to  be  greatly  against  him,  cheered  and  jeered, 
swayed  to  and  fro  and  interrupted  his  first  sentences 
with  impertinent  and  insolent  interjections.  The  orator 
not  for  a  moment  lost  temper  or  countenance.  He 
would  not  notice  that  the  confusion  was  anything 
unusual  for  a  large  audience.  Soon  his  musical  voice 
attracted  attention,  and  then  his  graceful  gesticulation ; 
then  a  rounded  period  brought  applause  from  those 
nearest  him.  Then  silence  and  attention  spread  a  little 
farther,  and  a  little  farther,  until  before  he  had  been 
speaking  fifteen  minutes  the  vast  concourse  was  per- 
fectly silent,  and  following  breathless  his  rapid  flights 
of  declamation  and  irresistible  rush  of  argument.  At 
the  close  of  each  sentence  a  ripple  of  cheers  would 
follow,  and  ever  and  anon  a  roar  of  applause  would 
make  the  welkin  ring.  For  four  hours  he  held  that 
audience  spell-bound,  and  at  last  when  his  magnificent 
peroration  struck  the  blood  of  every  listener  with  the 
chill  of  pleasure  and  admiration,  and  the  orator  had 
closed,  a  universal  shout  broke  out — ''  Go  on !  Go  on  ! 
"  We  can  listen  to  you  until  the  sun  rises  !" 

Mr-  Yancey  left  Montgomery  about  the  middle  of 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.      435 

September  upon  a  tour  to  the  North.  After  speaking 
at  Kingston,  Ga.,  with  his  usual  power,  he  proceeded  to 
Knoxville,  the  hot-bed  of  Unionism  in  East  Tennessee. 
There  he  addressed  an  audience  of  not  less  than  three 
thousand  people,  defending  his  cause  with  such  signal 
ability  as  to  deeply  impress  all  who  heard  him,  of 
whatever  shade  of  opinion.  To  break  the  force  of 
his  argument,  and  just  before  he  appeared  ready  to 
conclude,  an  incident  occurred  which  well  illustrates  the 
temper  of  the  times.  The  Knoxville  Register,  de- 
scribing the  events  of  the  day,  says  : 

At  this  stage  (of  Mr.  Yancey's  speech)  a  voice,  Mr. 
Manley,  asked,  what  would  you  do  if  Lincoln  was 
elected  President  ? 

Yancey — Come  upon  the  stand. 

Mr.  Manley  went  up  and  took  his  seat. 

Mr.  Yancey  said  he  received  twelve  years  of  his 
education  in  New  England,  and  there  learned  the 
Yankee  mode  of  answering  questions,  and  said  to  Mr. 
M.  I'll  answer  your  question  by  asking  another. 

Manley-  -Ask  it. 

Yancey — Who  are  you  in  favor  of  for  President  ? 

Manley — John  Bell. 

Yancey — Will  you  endorse  what  John  Bell  has  said 
on  breaking  up  the  Union  ? 

Manley — feaid  he  had  propounded  the  question  at 
the  request  of  others. 

Mr.  Yancey  asked  their  names.  A  note  was  handed 
to  him  signed  S.  R.  Rogers,  Wm.  Rogers,  Jno.  M. 
Fleming,  W.  G.  Brownlow,  and  0.  P.  Temple.  He 
called  out  the  names  of  these  gentlemen  and  requested 
them  to  come  on  the  stand  with  him.  After  some 
Httle  delay  they  appeared  on  the  stand  as  requested. 


436      THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

Mr.  Yancey  asked  them  who  they  were  in  favor  of 
for  President.  All  answered — John  Bell.  He  then 
repeated  the  question  he  had  propounded  to  Mr.  l!v Pau- 
ley, and  requested  an  answer  from  each. 

Col.  Temple — Said  Bell  had  always  been  a  Union 
man ;  though  some  Breckinridge  men  had,  by  garbled 
extracts  from  his  speeches,  sought  to  create  a  different 
impression.  Thus  recognizing  Mr.  Bell,  he  was  pre- 
pared to  endorse  his  position  properly  entrusted.  He 
did  not  mean  to  charge  Mr.  Yancey  with  garbling,  etc. 

Yancey — Said  he  did  not  suppose  any  gentleman 
would  try  to  insult  him  on  the  stand,  and  he  did  not 
regard  Mr.  Temple's  remarks  as  applying  to  him,  or  he 
would  have  replied  in  a  different  manner. 

Mr.  Brownlow,  in  answer  to  the  question,  said  yes, 
and  added — I  propose  when  the  Secessionists  go  to 
Washington  to  dethrone  Lincoln,  I  am  for  seizing  a 
bayonet  and  forming  an  army  to  resist  such  attack,  and 
they  shall  walk  over  my  dead  body  on  their  way. 

S.  R.  Rogers  endorses  Mr.  Brownlow's  position. 

J.  M.  Fleming — If  Mr.  Bell  had  been  interrogated 
on  this  point,  he  would  endorse  his  answer. 

When  the  question  was  asked  Wm.  Rogers,  Mr. 
Brownlow  said,  we  all  answer  in  the  affirmative. 

Yancey — I  asked  him.  I  suppose  he  knows  better 
than  you,  unless  you  have  agreed  on  a  stereotyped 
answer. 

Brownlow — No,  we  have  not  been  initiated  into  your 
League. 

Yancey — No,  or  you  would  have  been  a  better 
Southern  man. 

Mr.  Yancey  then  read  an  extract  from  John  Bell's 
speech  (the  extract  published  a  short  time  since  in  the 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.      437 

Register),  and  said,  now,  gentlemen,  I  will  answer  your 
question,  and  answered  it  in  the  following  words  : 

I  now  proceed  to  answer  this  question,  although 
unable  to  perceive  in  what  manner  my  future  act  in 
Alabama  can,  in  the  least  degree,  affect  your  votes 
here,  on  the  question  of  the  election  of  a  President. 

By  an  act  of  the  General  Assembly  in  Alabama, 
passed  last  winter,  it  is  made  the  duty  of  the  Gov- 
ernor, in  the  event  a  Black  Republican  shall  be  elected 
President,  in  a  certain  period  after  he  ascertains  it, 
(thirty  days  I  believe)  to  make  proclamation  of  the 
fact — and  that  an  election  shall  then  be  held  by  the 
people  to  elect  delegates  to  a  Convention  of  the  people 
of  the  State,  which  Convention  will  consider  what  the 
sovereignty  and  wrongs  done  the  State  require  at  its 
hands. 

As  I  said  to  you  in  the  earlier  part  of  my  speech,  I  am 
a  States-Rights  man — believing  in  the  right  of  a  State 
to  command  the  allegiance  and  obedience  of  its  citizens, 
and  therefore  that  my  allegiance  is  first  due  to  my 
State.  I  do  not  believe  in  exercising  the  individual 
natural  right  of  rebellion,  until  both  States  as  well  as 
Federal  Constitutions  are  broken,  and  my  rights  are 
destroyed.  If  the  Federal  Constitution  shall  be  broken 
and  destroyed  by  the  usurpation  of  a  Higher  Law 
faction,  my  right  to  resist  is  subordinate  to  my  allegi- 
ance to  my  State  Constitution.  As  an  individual, 
therefore,  I  shall  not  rebel  against  such  an  election,  for 
that  would  he  rebellion  also  against  my  own  State 
authority.  But  whatever  course  Alabama  may  take, 
that  course  I  shall  be  bound  by  as  a  citizen,  and  if  it 
is  to  acquiesce,  I  shall  do  so — if  it  is  to  secede,  I  shall 
cast  my  fortunes  with  that  of  the  State.     If  the  Con- 


438      THE  CRADLE  OP  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

vention  shall  see  fit  to  go  into  a  consultation  with  the 
other  Southern  States,  and  act  as  they  agree^  I  shall 
abide  by  that  action.  If  it  shall  decide  to  demand  new 
guaranties  for  its  rights,  before  it  will  remain  longer  in 
the  Union,  I  shall  acquiesce  in  that.  In  fine,  as  I  am 
bound  by,  so  shall  I  acquiesce  in  all  that  my  State  may 
decide  to  do. 

If  my  State  resists,  I  shall  go  with  her ;  and  if  I 
meet  this  gentleman  (pointing  to  Mr.  Brownlow),  mar- 
shaled with  his  bayonet  to  oppose  us,  I'll  plunge  my 
bayonet  to  the  hilt  through  and  through  his  heart  and 
feel  no  compunctions  for  the  act,  and  thank  my  God 
my  country  has  been  fi:eed  from  such  a  foe.  This 
man,  forgetfiil  of  his  nativity,  had  uttered  fratricidal 
sentiments  of  hostility  towards  men  of  the  South  who 
differ  with  him  upon  their  views  of  their  rights  and  the 
time  and  manner  in  which  they  should  be  asserted  and 
supported,  but  who,  if  they  err  in  judgment,  err  on  the 
side  of  patriotism  and  through  devotion  to  their  native 
land.  If  Providence,  in  pit}',  refrain  sending  its  thun- 
derbolt, crushing  this  old  oak  tree,  whose  boughs  now 
shelter  us,  and  which  has  lifted  its  head  to  heaven  since 
the  days  of  Washington,  and  our  revolutionary  sires — 
he,  but  one  individual  of  the  South,  might  safely  leave 
the  author  of  such  sentiments  to  the  reproaches  of  his 
own  conscience  and  the  retributive  justice  which,  sooner 
or  later,  ever  overtakes  those  who  oppose  their  country's 
weal.  He  recognized  those  who  came  on  the  stand  as 
gentlemen,  and  he  bore  no  personal  malice  towards 
them.  He  hoped  no  militia  office  would  be  confeiTed 
on  this  gentleman  (pointing  to  Mr.  Brownlow.)  He 
had  better  preach. 

He  regretted  that  he  had  been  diverted  firom  words 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.      439 

of  peace  through  interruption.  He  called  it  an  inter- 
ruption, but  in  one  sense,  and  that  not  an  offensive  one. 
He  expressed  his  thanks  to  the  people  for  their  kind- 
ness and  courtesy.  He  also  thanked  the  Bell  men  who 
were  gentlemen,  and  those  not  gentlemen. 

He  knew  the  power  of  the  press,  the  base  slanders  it 
had  uttered  against  him,  and  between  now  and  the  end 
of  the  canvass,  they  would  still  go  where  his  voice  could 
not  reach.  Their  lies  were  like  a  scrubby  quarter 
nag,  while  Truth  was  a  thorough  bred  four-mile  horse. 
On  a  short  race  the  quarter  nag  was  always  successful, 
but  thorough  bred  Truth  was  always  victorious  in  a 
long  race. 

A  few  'Other  eloquent  and  complimentary  remarks 
to  the  ladies,  Mr.  Yancey  closed.  At  the  conclusion 
of  his  remarks  Mr.  Brownlow  took  the  stand,  and  said 
in  substance  that  the  gentleman  had  spoken  of  him  as 
a  parson,  and  suggested  his  duty  in  that  capacity.  He 
had  read  some  Scripture,  and  he  would  say  to  the  gen- 
tleman, get  thee  behind  me,  Satan.  He  had  heard  the 
gentleman  in  a  whisper  ask  a  gentleman  on  the  stand 
if  that  was  not  the  parson,  referring  to  the  speaker. 
The  gentleman  said  yes.  While  he  was  on  the  subject 
of  parsons,  the  gentleman  should  have  referred  to  the 
fact  that  the  gentlem;in  of  whom  he  asked  the  question 
(Rev.  Isaac  Lewis)  was  a  Federal  office-holder,  as  was 
another  parson  present,  and  that  the  Democrats  had 
on  their  State  ticket,  and  as  an  Elector  for  this  District, 
.two  more  parsons,  who  only  differed  with  him  in  the* 
fact  that  they  had  been  silenced  for  lying. 

He  declined  speaking  any  more,  but  would  speak 
out  through  his  paper. 


440  TriE  CRADLE  OP  Tfi:E  CONFEDERACt^. 

Mr.  Yancey  said,  if  you  have  anything  to  say,  say  it 
here  before  me  Hke  a  man. 

The  crowd  called  again  for  Mr.  Yancey.  He  said, 
gentlemen,  you  cannot  expect  me  to  dignify  such  a 
speech  with  a  reply. 

The  State  of  Virginia,  while  generally  Democratic, 
had  been  so  uncertain  at  all  times,  that  now  it  was 
behoved  that  the  Douglas  party  would  take  sufficient 
votes  from  the  regular  Democratic  Electoral  ticket  to 
give  her  to  Mr.  Bell.  It  was  deemed  advisable  that 
Mr.  Yancey  should  speak  at  Richmond.  Remain- 
ing there  one  night  he  spoke  to  an  immense  audience 
with  his  usual  effect.  Declining  invitations  which 
came  to  him  from  all  parts  of  Virginia — a  State  which 
remembered  the  brilliant  words  he  uttered  when  he 
received  at  its  Capitol  the  field-glass  of  George  Wash- 
ington, presented  to  him  by  the  ladies  of  the  Mount 
Vernon  Association  a  few  years  before — he  hastened 
to  Washington.  Wherever  he  went  the  crowds  which 
poured  forth  to  meet  him  increased  in  numbers.  So 
great  had  become  the  fame  of  his  eloquence  and  power, 
that  the  largest  buildings  could  not  contain  those  that 
flocked  to  hear  him.  To  one  of  these  mighty  hosts  at 
the  Capital  of  the  Union,  he  spoke  as  follows  : 

"  I  say  to  you,  then,  though  we  deprecate  disun- 
"ion,  we  will  have  the  Union  of  our  fathers.  It  has 
"bpen  said  that  the  South  has  aggressed  upon  the 
"JNorth.  When  and  where  has  my  people  ever 
"  aggressed  upon  the  people  of  any  other  section  ? 
"  When  and  where  has  any  Southern  statesman  pro- 
"  posed  a  wrong  to  be  done  to  the  West,  the  North- 
"  west,  the  East,  or  the  Northeast  ?" 

A  voice — "Never." 


THE  CRADLE  OP  THE  CONFEDERACY.      441 

Mr.  Yancey — '*  Never.  History  will  proclaim  it. 
"  This  age  proclaims  it.  Our  enemies  will  proclaim  it 
"  by  their  silence  when  we  defy  them  to  answer  the 
"question. 

"  Ours,  then,  is  a  position  of  defence  within  the 
"limits  of  the  Constitution.  We  uphold  its  banner. 
"  We  intend  to  defend  its  principles.  We  ask  only 
"  equal  rights  in  our  common  Government.  We  ask 
"  protection  for  these  rights  in  our  common  Govern- 
"  ment.  Nothing  more,  and,  so  help  me  God,  we  will 
"  submit  to  nothing  less."     [Applause.] 

"  Now,  my  fellow-citizens,  I  do  not  intend  to  address 
"  you  at  length  to-night.  I  am  wearied,  having  trav- 
"  eled  all  night,  and  having  been  detained  on  the  way 
"  by  an  accident  on  the  railroad.  I  have  spoken  four 
"times  this  week,  and  once  I  had  the  modesty  to 
"  address  an  audience  four  hours.  [A  voice — '  Give 
"  us  four  hours  more  to-night.']  I,  therefore,  have  no 
"physical  ability  to  detain  you  any  longer  to-night. 
"  I  conceive  that  you  have  met  here  to-night  not  from 
"  any  special  respect  to  an  individual,  but  that  you 
"  have  recognized  me  as  one  earnestly  striving  to 
"  advance  the  cause  of  the  Constitution ;  and  in  that 
"  spirit,  and  in  that  only,  have  shown  your  respect  for 
"  the  cause  of  Democracy—  something  that  is  deserv- 
"  ing  of  that  respect — for  that  I  most  sincerely  thank 
"  you.  I  trust  that  I  shall  never  deserve  a  want  of 
"  respect  at  your  hands,  or  at  those  of  any  one  else,  by 
"  proposing  aggression  on  any,  or  by  proposing  any 
"  measure  not  in  accordance  with  a  strict  construction 
"  of  the  Constitution." 

A  voice — "  What  will  the  South  do  in  the  event  'of 
"  Lincoln's  election  ?" 


442      THE  CRADLE  OP  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

Mr.  Yancey — "  1  don't  know  what  she  will  do  ;  but 
"  I  will  say  to  you-  -I  put  it  to  you,  my  friend.  Now 
"  if  you  live  in  a  slave-holding  State —  " 

The  same  voice — "  I  do,  sir." 

Mr.  Yancey — "  Well,  then,  if  John  Brown  commits 
"  a  raid  on  that  State  while  in  the  peace  of  God,  and 
"  while  in  the  peace  of  the  country,  under  the  peace  of 
"  the  Constitution  that  is  supposed  to  protect  it — if  he 
''  comes  with  pike,  with  musket,  and  bayonet,  and 
"  cannon ;  if  he  slaughter  an  inoffensive  people  ;  if  his 
"  myrmidons  are  scattered  all  over  our  country,  where 
"  it  is  suppos^  rests  this  institution  which  is  so  unpal- 
"  atable,  inciting  our  slaves  to  midnight  arson,  to  mid- 
"  night  murder,  and  to  midnight  insurrection  against 
"  the  sparsely  scattered  white  people  ;  if  the  brother- 
"  hood  of  this  nation  shall  be  broken  up,  and  the  com- 
**  mon  citizenship  shall  be  ignored ;  if  the  protection 
"  that  is  due  from  every  citizen  to  every  other  citizen 
"  shall  be  no  longer  afiforded  ;  if,  in  the  place  of  it,  a 
"  wild  and  bloodthirsty  spirit — not  of  revenge,  for 
"we  have  done  no  wrong  to  be  revenged — but  a 
"  bloodthirsty  spuit'  of  assassination,  of  murder,  and 
"  of  wrong  takes  its  place,  and  we  find  scattered 
"  throughout  all  our  borders  these  people,  and  we  find 
"  the  midnight  skies  lighted  up  by  the  fires  of  our 
"  dwellings,  and  the  wells  from  which  we  hourly  drink 
"  poisoned  by  strychnine ;  and  our  wives  and  our 
"  children,  when  we  are  away  at  our  business,  are  found 
"  murdered  i)y  our  hearthstones,  my  answer,  my  friend, 
"  is  in  these  words :  What  would  t/ou  do  ?"  [Loud 
applause.] 

A  voice — "  I  would  stop  him  before  he  got  that  far." 

Mr.  Yancey — "  1  believe  that  the  God  of  hberty,  to 


THE  Cl^ADLE  OP  THE  CONFEDERACY.  443 

"  whom  it  is  our  duty  at  all  times  to  pray ;  He  who 
*'  holds  in  his  hands  the  very  destinies  of  nations — 
"  will  so  turn  the  hearts  of  our  people  that  such  an 
'*  event  shall  not  happen." 

A  voice — "  Amen." 

Mr.  Yancey — "  For  myself,  I  do  hope  that  in  the 
"Northern  States,  which  hold  this  question  in  their 
"  hands,  in  some  way  a  feeling  of  justice  will  be  aroused 
"  in  the  minds  of  the  people,  and  they  will  consider 
"  this  matter,  and  prevent  this  dire  result.  As  for  the 
"  South,  we  are  in  a  minority.  We  cannot  prevent  it, 
"  however  much  we  may  desire  to  do  so.  The  North 
"  is  now  the  dominant  section  of  this  country.  It  has 
"  183  electoral  votes  to  our  120.  It  is  for  them  to 
"  say  what  is  to  be  our  destiny  within  this  Govern- 
"  ment.  It  is  not,  thank  God,  for  the  North  to  say 
"  what  shall  be  the  destiny  of  Southern  freemen. 
"['Good,' and  applause.]  That  we  hold  in  our  own 
"  hands.  Our  prosperity,  our  safety,  our  institutions 
"  do  not  depend  upon  any  vote  the  North  may  give  in 
''  this  matter  as  long  as  we  are  true  to  ourselves.  They 
'^  are  safe,  though  the  Constitution  may  be  rent  asunder. 
"  We  prefer  our  protection  and  our  defence  within  the 
'*  lines  of  the  Government  of  Washington  and  Jefierson 
"  and  of  Hancock,  but  if  it  is  not  given  to  us,  we  know 
"  that  we  have  freedom  within  our  own  breasts.  But 
"  within  this  Union,  this  Union  must  be  preserved  by 
"  Northern  votes. 

"  The  issue  is  now  left  with  the  North,  and  it  is  ten- 
"  dered  her  to  save  the  Union  and  the  Constitution  by 
"  putting  down  the  Black  Repubhcan  party."     [^ood.] 

The  October  elections  had  taken  place  in  Pennsyl- 
vania,  and  that  great  State  had  pronounced  for  the 


444  THE  CBADLte  OP  THE  CONPEDERAOY. 

Republican  party.  There  was  now  no  hope  of  pre- 
venting the  election  of  Mr.  Lincoln  except  by  bringing 
about  a  fusion  between  the  Douglas  and  Breckinridge 
parties  of  New  York.  To  that  end  Mr.  Yancey  visited 
New  York,  and  approved  of  the  fusion,  which  was  suc- 
cessfully accomplished.  The  State  of  New  York  cast 
thirty-five  electoral  votes.  The  entire  electoral  vote 
by  which  Mr.  Lincoln  was  elected  was  180  ;  the  vote 
for  all  the  other  candidates  was  123.  Had  New  York 
voted  for  Douglas  instead  of  for  Lincoln,  the  vote  would 
have  been  158  against  the  latter,  and  only  145 
in  his  favor.  The  decision  would  have  gone  to  Con- 
gress, and  either  Mr.  Bell  or  Gen.  Lane  would  have 
become  President.  The  vote  of  New  York  was 
362,000  for  Lincoln  and  312,000  for  tlie  fusion 
ticket.  Had  the  compromise  been  effected  at  an  earher 
day,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  New  York  would 
never  have  cast  her  vote  for  Lincoln.  Just  here,  the 
reviewer  of  the  events  of  that  day  pauses  to  enquire 
how  it  was  possible  to  bring  about  a '  fusion  at  New 
York  when  the  damage  was  already  done,  and  it  was 
not  possible  to  bring  it  about  at  Charleston  or  Balti- 
more. How  could  Mr.  Yancey  succumb  to  policy  in 
October  when  he  had  scorned  to  listen  to  it  in  April 
and  June  ? 

It  was  the  purpose  of  the  RepubKcans  to  drive  Mr. 
Yancey  to  the  wall  upon  the  question  whether  he 
favored  disunion  in  the  event  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  election. 
His  position  upon  that  question  would  materially  affect 
the  floating  vote  in  the  city  of  New  York.  If  he 
should  say  that  he  would  favor  disunion  in  that  event, 
the  Republicans  would  denounce  the  fusion  ticket  as 
composed  partly  of  disunionists,  and  would  appeal  to 


THE  CRADLE  OP  THE  CONFEDERACY.      445 

the  pride  of  the  Union  men  to  defy  such  threats.  If 
he  should  say  he  would  not  favor  such  a  movement  he 
would  repudiate  the  declaration  of  the  General  Assem- 
bly of  his  State  and  his  own  present  wishes  and  inten- 
tions. Speaking  in  the  grand  hall  of  Coopers  Institute 
to  such  a  mass  of  men  as  only  New  York  can  present 
to  a  popular  public  orator,  he  said  : 

"  I  have  been  asked  here  to-night  certain  questions, 
"  which  I  deem  it  right  to  answer  now,  at  the  present. 
"  One  of  these  questions  is,  '  Would  you  consider  the 
"  election  of  Abraham  Lincoln  as  President  a  sufficient 
"'  cause  to  warrant  the  South  in  seceding  from  the 
"Union?'  The  second  is,  *  Whether,  in  the  case  of 
"Mr.  Lincoln  being  elected,  and  any  of  the  States 
"  attempted  to  secede,  would  you  support  the  General 
"  Government  and  the  other  States  in  maintaining  the 
"integrity  of  the  Union?'  The  first  question  is  a 
"  speculation — a  political  speculation,  at  that.  It  has 
"  nothing  to  do  with  the  canvass.  I  am  here,  however, 
"  aiding  you  to  prevent  such  a  calamity.  I  am  hon- 
"  estly  endeavoring  to  maintain  the  integrity  of  the 
"'  Government  and  the  safety  of  the  Union  at  the  ballot- 
"  box.  [Applause.]  I  am  here  to  aid  you  in  trying 
''  to  prevent  the  election  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  the 
"  author  of  the  irrepressible  conflict ;  and  if  others  as 
"  faithfully  do  their  duty,  he  will'  never  be  elected. 
"  [Applause.]  I  am  asked,  and  have'  been  asked 
"  before,  whether  I  consider  the  election  of  Lincoln 
"  would  be  a  just  cause  for  the  secession  of  the  South- 
"  ern  States  ?  That  is  a  matter  to  come  after  the  ballot- 
"box.  [Cheers  and  derisive  laughter,  and  cries  of 
"  '  Answer  the  question.']  Be  quiet,  gentlemen.  Hear 
"  me,  hear  me.     [Great  excitement  and  tumult — cries 


446      THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

"  of  *  Order,  order,'  from  the  platform.]  Don't  be  im- 
'^  patient,  gentlemen.  [Increasing  disorder.]  Don't 
*'  be  impatient,  and  above  all  things  keep  your  temper. 
[Laughter  and  applause.]  This  is  not  the  time  to  fight, 
"  certainly.  [Laughter.]  This  is  a  time  to  vote,  and 
"  to  consider  how  to  vote." 

A  voice — "  Let  us  have  an  answer  to  the  question." 

Mr.  Yancey — "  You  are  impatient,  my  friend.     What 
"  is  the  matter  with  you  ?" 

An  excited  individual  on  the  platform — "  Put  him 
"  out." 

Mr.  Yancey — "  If  gentlemen  are  so  desirous  of  know- 
"  ing  my  opinions,  they  ought  to  abide  by  my  decisions 
"when  they  are  uttered.  [Cheers.]  This  thing  of 
"  asking  advice  of  a  man  and  •  then  not  taking  his 
"advice,  is  a  monstrous  poor  way  of  getting  along. 
**  Now,  I  am  going  to  say  this  about  it.  This  question 
"  that  is  put  to  me  is  a  speculation  on  the  future.  It  is 
"  what  I  consider  would  happen  in  the  event  of  some- 
"  thing  else  happening.  I  hope  to  God  that  that  will 
"  never  happen,  and  that  the  speculation  will  never 
"come  t(5  a  head.  [Applause.]  I  am  no  candidate 
"  for  the  Presidency,  my  friends  who  wrote  these  ques- 
"  tions,  though  some  of  you  seem  to  have  thought  so, 
"judging  from  the  manner  in  which  you  have  treated 
"  me  and  Mr.  Breckinridge.  I  am  no  candidate  for 
"  any  office,  and  I  do  not  want  your  vote.  But  I  would 
"  like  to  advise  with  you  and  get  you  to  vote  for  a 
"  good  man — for  any  man,  I  do  not  care  who  it  is, 
"  excepting  one  of  the  irrepressible  conflict  men.  [Up- 
"roarous  applause.]  In  the  first  place,  there  is  no 
"  such  thing  as  the  South  seceding.  I  do  not  know 
"  how  she  would  go  about  it.     [Cries  of  '  Good,'  and 


THE  CRADLE  OP  THE  CONFEDERACY.      447 

"  loud  cheers.]  There  is  such  a  thing  as  a  State  sece- 
"  ding ;  but  the  South  seceding  is  a  thing  which  I 
*^  cannot  comprehend.  I  do  not  know  how  the  South 
"  would  go  about  it.  I  do  not  think  it  could  ever 
"  happen ;  and,  therefore,  I  have  no  answer  to  give  as 
"  to  what  the  South  should  do.  Now,  then,  I  am  a 
"  citizen  of  the  State  of  Alabama.  I  am  what  is  called 
"a  States-Rights  man.  [Cheers.]  I  believe  in  the 
"  rights  of  my  State.  The  Constitution  of  my  country 
"  tells  me  that  certain  powers  were  given  to  the  General 
"  Government,  and  that  all  which  were  not  expressly 
"  given,  or  were  not  necessary  to  carry  out  the  powers 
"  granted,  were  reserved  to  the  States  and  to  the  people 
"  of  the  States.  My  State  has  reserved  powers  and 
"  reserved  rights,  and  I  believe  in  the  right  of  seces- 
"  sion.  [Excited  cries  of  *  Good.']  Virginia  and  New 
"  York  were  parties  to  that  compact.  When  the  ques- 
"  tion  was  presented,  the  State  of  Virginia  expressed 
"  her  willingness  to  join  under  the  compact.  The 
"  State  of  New  York  also  did  so  through  her  con- 
"  vention. 

"  It  was  provided  that  if  nine  States  assented,  it 
"  would  be  a  government  for  those  nine,  and  for  all  the 
''  States  that  would  sign  the  compact.  Therefore,  the 
"  compact  was  a  compact  between  the  States  mutually 
"  assenting :  wiUingly  assenting.  If  any  dissented  there 
''  was  no  proposition  to  force  them  into  the  Union. 
"  Therefore,  I  believe  in  the  right  of  a  State  to  go  out 
"  of  the  Union  if  she  thinks  proper.  The  State  of  Ala- 
"bama,  in  her  last  General  Assembly,  passed  a  law 
"  requiring  the  Governor,  in  the  event  of  a  Black  Repub- 
"  lican  being  elected  President  of  the  United  States,  to 
"  convene,  within  so  many  days  after  he  ascertained 


448      THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

"  that  fact,  a  convention  of  the  people  of  the  State,  for 
"  the  purpose  of  considering  the  question  which  is  here 
"  presented  to  me.  It  is  a  question  for  the  decision  of 
"  my  State — I  cannot  decide  it.  As  one  of  the  citizens 
"of  Alabama,  I  shall  abide  by  the  decisions  of  my 
"  State.  K  she  goes  out,  I  go  with  her.  If  she 
"  remains  in,  I  remain  with  her.  I  cannot  do  otherwise. 
"  [Laughter  and  cheers.]  It  is  a  grave  question,  but 
"  one  which  I  hope  God,  in  His  Providence,  will  keep 
"  me  from  considering,  by  the  safety  of  this  Govern- 
"  ment  in  the  election  of  some  man  opposed  to  the 
" '  irrepressible  conflict  party.  [Cheers.]  But  when 
"  the  time  comes  for  me  to  make  up  my  mind,  I  will 
"  have  deliberate  consultation  with  my  fellow-citizens  in 
"Alabama.  You  in  New  York  have  nothing  to  do 
"  with  it ;  nothing.  Whatever  deliberations  you  choose 
"  to  have,  as  citizens  of  New  York,  on  the  fate  of  your 
"  State,  will  be  for  yourselves.  I  have  no  interest  in 
"  that  question  except  incidentally,  and  have  no  right 
"  to  advise  with  you  or  say  anything  to  you  about  it. 
"  But  upon  this  Presidential  question  I  have  a  common 
"  interest  with  you,  because  it  is  the  election  of  one  to 
"  administer  the  Government  for  the  next  four  years — 
"for  my  State  as  well  as  yours.  Therefore  it  is  a 
"  common  question,  about  which  I  can  consult  with  you. 
"  But  whether  my  State  or  any  other  State  will  go  out 
"  of  the  Union,  is  a  question  which  it  will  be  for  that 
"  State  itself  to  determine.  It  is  not  to  be  determined 
"  by  arguing  it  before  the  election.  It  would  be  a  grave 
"  matter  for  me  to  commit  myself  here,  to  a  crowd  in 
"  New  York,  to  any  policy  that  might  be  influenced  by 
"  after  events,  by  surrounding  circumstances,  by  the 
"  expressed  sympathies  of  large  majorities  of  the  people 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.  449 

"  of  New  York  or  other  States  with  the  South.  For 
"  me  here,  merely  to  gratify  some  political  antagonist, 
"  to  express  my  opinion  on  that  point  would  be  folly  ; 
"  it  is  the  wildest  folly  to  expect  I  will.  That  opinion 
"  will  be  rendered  to  the  people  of  my  State  whenever 
"  they  ask  for  it.  [An  individual  on  the  platform — 
"  '  Three  cheers  for  the  answer.']  Now,  I  am  asked 
"  one  other  question.  I  am  asked  whether,  if  any 
'^  portion  of  the  South  secedes,  I  will  aid  the  Govern- 
"  ment  in  maintaining  the  integrity  of  the  Union.  Yes, 
"  my  friend,  the  integrity  of  the  Union.  [Cheers.] 
"  I  am  now  struggling  for  it ;  I  shall  struggle  for  it  to 
"  the  day  of  election.  The  integrity  of  the  Union  I 
"  shall  struggle  for  with  my  life's  blood  if  required. 
"  [Enthusiastic  cheers.]  But  if  this  question  means  by 
"  the  integrity  of  the  Union  the  preservation  of  an  ad- 
"  ministration  that  shall  trample  on  any  portion  of  the 
"  rights  of  the  South,  I  tell  him  that  I  will  aid  my 
"  State  in  resisting  it  to  blood.  [Great  cheering.] 
"  The  common  rights  of  resistance  to  wrong  which 
"  belong  to  the  worm — those  rights  are  not  the  rights 
"  which  were  meant  to  be  secured  by  our  fathers  in  the 
"  Declaration  of  Independence,  when  they  cut  them- 
"  selves  loose  from  despotism  and  the  despotic  ties  of 
"  the  old  world.  The  serf  of  Russia  has  got  the  right 
"  of  revolution.  The  hog  has  got  the  right  to  resist  if 
'^  you  try  to  put  a  knife  to  his  throat.  [Cheers  and 
"  laughter.]  The  right  of  revolution  is  only  the  poor 
"  serf's  right.  It  is  no  right  at  all.  It  is  only  the  last 
"  expiring  throe  of  oppressed  nationality."  [Tumultu- 
ous cheering.] 

Proceeding  from  New  York  to  Boston,  Mr.  Yancey 
spoke  at  Faneuil  Hall.    Nowhere  had  he  been  mis- 


450      THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

represented  more  than  in  New  England  ;  nowhere  was 
his  name  more  detested  than  at  Boston.  Faneuil  Hall 
had  once  been  closed  to  Mr.  Webster,  and  now  a 
fiercer  States-Rights  man  than  Webster's  old  adversary, 
Hayne,  was  about  to  address  the  constituents  of  Sumner 
and  Burlingame  from  a  rostrum  devoted  to  freedom. 
The  hall  was  densely  packed  with  an  excited  and  hostile 
mass  of  men.  At  the  outset  of  his  remarks  there  was 
unmistakable  tendency  to  designed  confusion  and  de- 
liberate interruption,  but  Mr.  Yancey  refused  to  notice 
that  the  demonstrations  were  other  than  accidental. 
He  alluded  in  a  few  terse  words  to  that  freedom  of 
thought  and  speech  for  which  Boston  had  been  distin- 
guished since  the  days  of  Warren  and  Revere.  Ap- 
pealing to  the  pride  of  a  Boston  audience  he  soon 
secured  silence  and  attention.  Then,  once  more,  he 
repeated  the  argument  which,  in  his  hands,  had  become 
almost  irresistible,  demanding  the  equality  of  the  States 
in  the  Union,  and  abating  not  one  jot  or  tittle  from  the 
pretensions  of  the  South.     He  asked  : 

"  Do  you  shrink  ifrom  an  honest  competition  with 
"the  slaveholder?  [^No!']  Then  take  your  hands 
"  off  of  the  slave  labor,  and  let  us  fight  it  out  with  you 
"  there  in  an  honest  way.  [I^oud  applause.]  I  think 
"  I  know  something  about  the  character  of  the  ancient 
"  men  of  Massachusetts,  if  I  know  nothing  about  the 
"  men  of  to-day ;  and  I  tell  you  that  the  men  who 
"  fought  at  Bunker  Hill  and  Lexington,  and  fought  all 
*'  over  the  Union  for  the  common  rights  of  all — those 
"  men  were  men  of  too  much  pride,  too  much  common 
"  sense,  and  too  much  love  of  justice  to  ask  that  in  any 
<^  race  they  tried  with  anybody  else,  their  opponents 
^  should  be  held  fast  and  they  let  loose.    [Cries  of 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.      451 

"^good.']  Now,  if  you  think  that  your  institutions 
''  are  better  than  ours,  if  you  think  yours  are  more 
"  civilizing  than  ours,  if  you  think  they  can  carry  on 
"  the  great  cause  of  civilization  better  than  we  can,  all 
"  we  ask  is — hands  ofi'  fair  play — and  victory  to  him 
'^  who  wins.  [Loud  cheering.  A  voice — '  Do  you 
"  mean  to  withdraw  from  the  Union  ?']  We  will  never 
"  withdraw  from  the  Union  as  long  as  the  Constitution 
"  exists  in  its  integrity.  I  will  tell  you  what  the  South 
"  must  do,  what  she  inevitably  will  do,  if  you  put  your 
"  heel  on  her,  if  you  deny  her  equality,  if  you  say  she 
"  shall  not  have  the  rights  in  the  Union  which  your 
"  fathers  declared  she  should  have.  If  you  violate  the 
"  Constitution,  I  tell  you,  the  South  tells  you,  her 
"  safety  does  not  depend  upon  you,  gentlemen.  Her 
"  safety  does  not  depend  upon  you.  The  descendants 
"  of  the  men  who  fought  the  battles  of  Eutaw,  King's 
"  Mountain,  and  Yorktown,  and  helped  you  fight  your 
"  battles  here,  can  take  care  of  themselv^s  if  you  won't 
"  take  care  of  them.  [Renewed  cheering.]  And, 
"  mind  you,  I  utter  it  in  no  vaunt,  and  as  no  threat.  Why, 
"  my  countrymen,  walk  in  a  field,  tread  on  a  caterpil- 
^'  lar,  and  the  poor  creature  will  turn  on  your  boot  and 
"  try  to  sting  you.  [^  Do  you  think  so  ?'J  Yes,  my 
"  friend,  1  do  think  so,  and  you  think  so,  too,  if  you 
''  have  an  ounce  of  manhood  in  your  weight  of  hundred 
''  and  fifty  pounds.     [Great  applause  and  laughter.] 

"  And  mind,  I  say,  that  in  all  this  that  I  declare  the 
"  South  will  do,  she  does  not  mean  to  trespass  upon 
"  you.  Thank  God,  I  can  say  so  for  my  section,  that 
"  she  has  never  proposed  a  wrong  upon  you — she  has 
"  always  resisted  every  proposition  of  wrong  upon  you 
" — she  has  been  ready  to  fight.     When  the  flag  was 


452      THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

" '  Free  Trade  and  Sailor's  Rights,'  she  helped  to  carry 
"  forward  the  contest  of  the  war  of  1812,  when  some 
"  men  in  fair  New  England  shrank  from  that  contest." 
[Loud  cheers.] 

The  effect  produced  by  this  speech  at  Faneuil  Hall 
may  be  understood  from  the  cotemporaneous  comments 
of  the  newspapers.  The  Boston  Courier^  an  advocate 
of  the  election  of  Mr.  Bell,  said  : 

"  It  is  enough  to  say  that  Mr.  Yancey  ^s  speech  was 
'^  worthy  of  the  famous  hall  in  which  it  was  spoken. 
"  He  was  eloquent,  logical,  patriotic,  and  patient  under 
"  the  taunts  which  were  poured  in  upon  him.  The 
"  speech  will  be  remembered  a  long  time  by  all  who 
"  heard  it.  Whether  we  agree  or  not  with  Mr.  Yancey, 
"  we  are  glad  that  he  has  given  us  an  address  which 
"  will  set  our  people  thinking.  When  the  men  of  Mas- 
'^  sachusetts  begin  to  reason,  we  shall  see  day  breaking." 

The  Boston  Post  said  : 

"  He  spoke  as  a  son  of  Alabama,  who  loved  his  own 
"  State  the  best,  but  who  recognized  co-equal  rights  in 
"  the  State  in  which  he  stood.  Then  he  went  on 
"  frankly  and  boldly  for  over  two  hours  with  admirable 
"  closeness  of  argument  and  richness  of  illustration.  ' 

"  The  lucid  presentation  of  the  historical  argument ; 
"  the  analysis  of  the  commercial  relations  which  bind 
'"  the  North  and  the  South ;  the  development  of  the 
**  importance  of  the  cotton  interest ;  the  defence  of 
"  Southern  institutions — were  done  with  master  ability. 
"  Interspersed  with  the  main  lines  of  argument,  was  a 
"succession  of  questions  put  by  unwilling  listeners, 
"  which,  so  far  from  embarrassing  the  orator,  were  met 
"  with  a  promptness  and  directness  of  reply  that  now 
"  drew  forth  shouts  of  laughter  and  now  thunders  of 


"THte  CHADLte  OP  mtm  CONFfiDfiftACY.  453 

"  applause.  We  hazard  nothinsj  in  the  remark,  that 
**  there  has  not  been  seen  such  an  exhibition  of  the 
"  power  of  oratory  for  a  long  time,  if  ever,  in  this  hall— 
"  and  at  quarter  past  ten,  when  Mr.  Yance}'  intimated 
"  that  exhaustion  would  oblige  him  to  close  his  speech, 
"  the  closely  packed  audience  still  remained  and  urged 
"  him  to  go  on — and  his  beautiful  and  noble  peroration 
"  was  Hstened  to  in  the  profoundest  silence ! 

"We  spread  the  letter  of  this  remarkable  efibrt 
"  before  our  readers,  and  they  can  read  the  words ;  but 
"  no  words  can  give  an  idea  of  the  tones,  the  gesture, 
"  the  manly  bearing,  the  ready  wit  and  the  conclusive 
"  point  of  the  orator ;  and  the  quick  appreciation  of  the 
"  excited  audience.  It  was  a  succession  of  triumphs, 
''  and  at  the  conclusion  the  hall  rang  with  the  wildest 
"  applause." 

Returning  South  by  way  of  the  Western  States, 
Mr.  Yancey  spoke  at  Cynthiana  and  Lexington,  at 
Cincinnati  and  at  Louisville.  Mr.  Geo.  D.  Prentice, 
of  the  Louisville  Journal,  while  decrying  his  speech 
through  the  press,  had  paid  the  orator  the  very  highest, 
compliment  by  listening  to  him  four  hours  and  in  a 
standing  posture.  At  New  Orleans  the  distinguished 
speaker  was  received  with  the  wildest  enthusiasm. 
The  audience  which  greeted  him  was  the  largest  that 
had  ever  assembled  in  the  Crescent  City.  Large 
numbers  came  in  from  the  country.  Opulent  planters 
were  seen  upon  the  stand  side  by  side  with  merchant 
princes  of  the  city.  It  was  said  that  no  popular  meet- 
ing had  ever  before  been  witnessed  in  New  Orleans 
where  the  officers  who  presided  represented  so  large 
an  amount  of  the  wealth  of  the  State.  Twenty  thou- 
sand voices  uprose  to  the  heavens  in  long  continued 


454      THE  CBABLB  OP  THE  CONPEBERAOY* 

plaudits,  while  from  the  balconies  and  windows  which 
overlooked  the  square,  thousands  of  handkerchiefs  were 
waved  by  the  ladies.  When  the  meeting  was  dissolved, 
the  vast  multitude  formed  into  procession,  the  well- 
organized  clubs  taking  the  lead  with  lamps  and 
transparencies,  marched  through  the  principal  streets 
greeted  by  multitudes  on  the  sidewalks  with  cheers  and 
huzzas  for  Breckinridge,  Yancey  and  the  South. 

The  week  preceding  the  Presidential  election  wit- 
nessed the  arrival,  at  Montgomery,  of  Mr.  Douglas 
and  the  return  of  Mr.  Yancey.  The  reception  of  the 
former  was  comparatively  tame  and  cold.  His  address 
to  the  people  was  a  repetition  of  those  which  he  had 
already  made  during  a  protracted  canvass.  As  he  had 
said  at  Norfolk  in  reply  to  a  question  what  should  be 
done  in  the  event  of  the  secession  of  a  State,  so  now 
again  he  answered  that  the  election  of  Mr.  Lincoln 
would  not  jstify  a  disruption  of  the  Union,  and  no  State 
should  be  permitted  to  set  up  an  independent  govern- 
ment against  the  United  States.  This  declaration  was 
received  with  cheers  by  the  large  audience  which,  partly 
from  sympathy,  partly  from  courtesy,  but  more  espe- 
cially from  curiosity,  had  assembled  to  hear  him. 
Although  the  cheering  was  by  no  means  general,  it 
was  sufficiently  widespread  and  distinct  to  exhibit  an 
unmistakable  Union  spirit  in  the  audience.  The  visit 
of  Mr.  Douglas  appeared  to  be  ominous.  As  he  left 
the  city  and  spoke  his  farewell  words  to  the  people 
upon  the  bank  of  the  river,  the  deck  of  the  steamer 
upon  which  he  stood  gave  way  and  precipitated  him 
several  feet  below.  Mrs.  Douglas,  who  was  standing 
with  Mrs.  Fitzpatrick  and  a  company  of  Montgomery 
ladies  around  them,  barely  escaped  fatal  injury. 


THE  CRADLE  OP  THE  CONFEDERACY.      455 

The  reception  of  Mr.  Yancey  at  his  home  was  an 
event  long  to  be  remembered  by  the  people  of  Mont- 
gomery. He  was  already  endeared  to  'his  political 
followers  by  twenty  years  devotion  to  their  principles. 
He  was  now  looked  upon  with  pride  by  even  his  oppo- 
nents, who  felt  that  their  city  and  State  were  honored 
in  one  whose  splendid  oratory  had  thrilled  the  Union 
from  centre  to  circumference.  The  little  city  of  ten 
thousand  inhabitants  turned  out  en  masse  to  welcome 
her  distinguished  son.  As  the  evening  shades  fell  upon 
the  streets  myriads  of  lights  illumined  the  dwellings, 
the  sidewalks  and  the  public  buildings.  The  political 
clubs  emerged  from  their  halls  with  transparencies  and 
torches.  Bonfires  blazed  at  the  corners  of  streets.  As 
the  mass  of  eager  people  followed  the  march  of  the 
clubs  the  procession  lengthened  out  indefinitely,  and 
with  one  accord,  accompanied  by  music  and  banners,  they 
marched  to  the  residence  of  Mr.  Yancey.  There  the 
orator  was  received  in  an  open  carriage  drawn  by  four 
splendid  horses  and  conducted  to  the  Theatre,  which 
was  already  well  filled  with  ladies.  The  meq  crowded 
upon  the  stage,  filled  the  aisles  and  passages  with  a 
dense  mass,  and  sought  from  the  lobby,  the  vestibules 
and  the  stairways  to  secure  a  glimpse  of  the  inspiring 
scene  within.  "  Welcome  to  the  Garibaldi  of  the  South," 
'*  Yancey  and  States-Rights,"  "  Equality  in  the  Union 
"  or  independence  out  of  it,"  were  some  of  the  significant, 
mottoes  which  decked  the  stage.  Boquets  were  show- 
ered around  him  as  the  speaker  appeared,  and  the 
whole  audience  rose  to  their  feet  with  cheer  upon  cheer. 
The  multitude  outside  who  could  not  obtain  entrance, 
clamored  for  Mr.  Judge  to  come  out  and  address  them. 
Thus  the  audience  in  the  street  who  listened  to  Mr. 


Yancey  by  deputy  was  almost  as  great  as  that  which 
filled  the  theatre. 

The  orator  reviewed  the  canvass  which  was  now  to 
close  upon  the  following  day.  Mr.  Lincoln  would 
probably  be  elected,  and  it  became  the  duty  of  all  true 
Southern  men  to  stand  united  in  resistance  to  his  domi- 
nation. The  die  was  cast ;  the  argument  was  exhaust- 
ed ;  would  his  friends  stand  to  their  arms  ?  The 
answer  of  those  friends  was  given  in  the  motto  over  his 
head.  They  looked  upon  him  as  the  Garibaldi  of 
THE  South. 

On  the  6th  of  November,  while  Mr.  Lincoln  was 
elected  President  under  the  forms  of  the  Constitution 
and  by  the  unrepresentative  system  of  Electoral  Col- 
leges, the  people  had  declared  against  him  by  a  large 
majority.  The  majority  of  votes  against  him  was 
nearly  two  hundred  thousand.  The  Supreme  Court 
and  the  Senate  were  already  against  him ;  and  now 
the  elections  had  increased  the  majority  against  the 
Republicans  in  the  lower  House  of  Congress.  Of  the 
twelve  hundred  and  fifty-one  thousand  votes  Uast  in 
the  slave  States,  Mr.  Bell  and  Mr.  Douglas,  repre- 
senting the  Union  sentiment,  as  against  the  secession 
sentiment,  received  six  hundred  and  and  ninety  thou- 
sand, a  clear  majority  of  the  whole.  In  the  State  of 
Alabama  there  were  41,000  against  Mr.  Breckinridge 
to  48,000  in  his  favor.  A  larger  vote  had  been  polled 
in  Mr.  Yancey's  own  State  for  candidates  who  de- 
nounced both  the  right  and  policy  of  secession,  than 
ever  before  in  her  annals.  In  Georgia  the  vote  for 
Bell  and  Douglas  was  larger  than  for  Breckinridge. 
In  Mississippi,  the  grave  of  Quitman  and  the  home  of 
Davis,  the  Breckinridge  ticket  stood  to  the  others  only 


^m&  CRADLE  OP  5^ttfi  COiSf^EBEiBACY.  457 

as  four  to  three.     Louisiana  threw  five  thousand  ma- 
jority against  Breckinridge. 

In  the  Gulf  States,  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Missis- 
sippi, there  was,  in  a  poll  of  330,000  votes,  a  bare 
majority  of  14,000  for  Mr.  Breckinridge.  While 
172,000  men  stood  by  Mr.  Yancey,  there  were,  157,000 
who  stood  with  Mr.  Bell  for  "  the  Constitution,  the 
"  Union  and  the  enforcement  of  the  law,"  or  with  Mr. 
Douglas  in  denying  the  right  and  policy  of  secession 
in  the  event  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  election. 


OH^PTEK    XVII. 


Election  of  Lincoln — Reception  of  the  N'ews — Mass  Meet- 
ing at  Montgomery —  Yancey  Declares  for  Secession — 
The  People  Taught  that  Secession  will  he  Peaceable — 
Go-operationists  and  Secessionists  —  The  Crittenden 
Compromise — Its  Rejection  and  Defeat. 


*'  Wayward  sisters,  depart  Inipeace !"— [Gen.  Winfield  Scott. 

"  I  have  good  reason  to  believe  that  the  action  of  any  State  will  be 
peaceable— will  not.be  resisted— under  the  present  or  any  probable  pros- 
pective condition  of  Federal  affairs."— [W.  L.  Yancey. 

"  Were  the  plan  of  the  Convention  adverse  to  the  public  happiness,  my 
voice  would  be,  Reject  the  plan.  Were  the  Union  itself  inconsistent 
with  the  public  happiness,  it  would  be.  Abolish  the  Union."— [Madi- 
son in  the  Federalist,  No.  xiv. 

On  the  night  of  the  eventful  6th  of  November,  1860, 
as  the  telegraph  carried  to  every  nook  and  corner  of 
the  Union  the  news  of  the  election,  the  people  of  Moni^ 
gomery  thronged  the  streets  and  the  newspaper  offices 
to  a  late  hour  to  learn  the  result.  All  depended  upon 
New  York  ;  it  was  past  midnight  before  definite  returns 
could  be  received  from  that  vast  State.  At  last  the 
result  was  announced.  The  administration  of  the 
United  States  fhad  been  consigned  to  the  Free  Soil 
party,  the  restrictionists  of  slavery.  Mr.  Watts  had 
already  broken  the  Whig  line  by  announcing,  towards 
the  close  of  the  canvass,  that  in  the  event  of  Lincoln's 
election  he  should  advise  and  advocate  secession.  He 
had  been  educated  at  the  University  of  Virginia  in  the 
school  of  constitutional  law  presided  over  by  Davis, 


460  THE  CRADLE  OP  THE  OONif  EBERlOY. 

afterwards  by  Holcombe,  and  had  steadfastly  recog- 
nized the  right  of  secession.  As  it  was  a  right,  so  he 
believed  that  now  it  was  the  duty  of  Alabama  to  secede. 
The  excited  citizens  who  had  been  watching  the 
returns  asked,  "  Mr.  Watts,  what  will  you  do  now  ?" 
His  reply  was,  "  Gentlemen,  we  ought  not  to  stand  it." 
Clanton,  whose  views  were  moulded  in  a  different 
school,  walked  the  streets  to  a  late  hour,  appealing  to 
his  party  friends  not  to  commit  themselves — to  wait  for 
the  cool  second  thought ;  but  by  noon  of  the  next  day 
so  rapid  appeared  to  be  the  defections  from  the  Union 
ranks  among  the  people  of  Montgomery  and  the  adja- 
cent country,  and  so  unmistakable  was  their  intention 
to  vindicate  the  declaration  of  their  General  Assembly, 
that  men  of  all  parties  at  the  Capital,  with  but  a  few 
exceptions,  .  pronounced  for  instant  and  separate  se- 
cession. Q) 

It  was  the  policy  of  those  who  advocated  secession  to 
strike  while  the  iron  was  hot,  to  arouse  the  people  to 
fury  immediately  upon  the  heels  of  the  election,  and 
to  persuade  them  that  immediate  action  while  many 
friends  of  the  South  were  still  influential  and  powerful 
at  Washington,  would  so  concentrate  and  consolidate 
the  strength  and  resources  of  seceding  States  as  to 
render  the  movement  entirely  peaceable.  On  the 
morning  of  the  8th,  while  passions  were  still  inflamed, 
the  leading  journal  at  Montgomery,  in  the  confidence 
of  Mr.  Yancey,  published  a  leader  entitled,  "  And  Now." 
It  said  : ."  Organize  !  We  can  now  enforce  a  peaceable 
"  secession.  The  time  may  come,  will  come,  must 
"  come,  if  you  delay  when  you  can  gain  your  freedom, 
"  if  at  all,  only  as  the  colonies  gained  it  when  they 
*'  separated ;  only   as  our  forefathers  gained  it  when 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.      461 

"  they  fought  the  battle  of  disunion,  through  toil  and 
"  bloodshed,  through  carnage  and  desolation."  The 
burden  of  the  cry  from  all  quarters  was — make  haste 
and  all  can  be  done  completely  and  peaceably  ;  delay, 
and  the  enemy  seeing  you  unprepared  to  prevent  the 
coercion  of  South  Carolina,  will  force  you  to  battle 
and  perhaps  desolation !  Between  the  two  alter- 
natives as  here  presented,  there  was  but  little  hesita- 
tion in  the  cities  and  towns  where  the  question  was 
most  thoroughly  discussed. 

In  the  midst  of  the  highest  excitement  and  popular 
indignation  a  mass  meeting  was  called  at  Estelle  Hall. 
At  the  request  of  Tennent  Lomax,  His  Excellency 
Gov.  A.  B.  iTv.ooRE  took  his  stand  upon  the  platform 
and  addressed  the  vast  audience  amid  tumultuous  and 
long  continued  applause.  The  Governor  said  he  saw 
no  course  left  but  to  secede  from  the  Union,  resume 
sovereignty,  and  form  a  Southern  Confederacy.  He 
had  no  discretion  with  regard  to  calling  the  Conven- 
tion— this  he  was  forced  to  do  by  the  resolutions  of 
the  Legislature,  but  if  he  had,  he  should  most  assuredly 
call  it,  for  he  felt  that  honor,  liberty,  and  property  were 
not  safe  under  the  rule  of  Abolitionism.  The  Governor 
took  his  seat  after  a  short  address,  and  was  succeeded 
by  Judge  S.  F.  Rice. 

Judge  Rice  said  that  he  did  not  appear  for  the 
purpose  of  making  a  speech,  but  to  introduce  a  resolu- 
tion, which  he  read,  as  follows  : 

"  Resolved,  That  the  authority  and  control  of  the 
"  Northern  sectional  Abolition  party,  calling  itself  Re- 
"  publican,  which  has  lately  elected  Abraham  Lincoln 
"  to  the  Presidency,  over  the  institutions,  rights,  and 
^'  Uberties  of  the  people  of  Alabama,  or  any  other  slave- 


462      THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

"  holding  State  of  the  South,  would  be  ruinous ;  that 
"  such  ruinous  authority  and  control  is  not  to  be  sub- 
"mitted  to,  but  can  only  be  effectively  resisted  by 
"  separate  State  action ;  that  we  are  in  favor  of  such 
"  separate  State  action,  and  without  any  further  delay 
"  than  may  be  necessary,  by  the  most  prompt  available 
*'  means,  to  procure  a  free  and  fraternal  consultation 
"  among  the  peoples  and  authorities  of  the  respective 
"  slaveholding  States,  entered  into  and  conducted  under 
"  the  patriotic  hope  that  such  consultation  will  result  in 
"  the  general  conclusion  on  the  part  of  the  people  of 
"the  slaveholding  States,  that  it  is  not  fit  or  safe,  that 
"  they  or  any  of  them  should  be  subject  to  the  control 
"  of  any  government,  the  destinies  of  which  are  in  the 
"  hands  of  said  sectional  Abolition  party."  ' 

Judge  Edward  W.  Pettus,  of  Cahaba,  in  obedience 
to  the  repeated  calls  of  the  audience,  took  the  stand 
and  made  a  few  eloquent  remarks  in  favor  of  the  reso- 
lution. He  was  followed  by  N.  H.  R.  Dawson,  of 
Selma,  whose  earnest  and  thriUing  address  made  an 
evident  impression  upon  his  hearers.  Loud  calls  were 
made  for  Mr.  Watts,  who  responded  in  a  spirited 
appeal  in  behalf  of  his  State  and  section.  When  Mr. 
Watts  had  concluded,  Judge  Goldthwaite  was  called 
for,  and  taking  his  place  on  the  platform,  vindicated  the 
cause  of  the  South  and  defended  the  right  and  policy  of 
secession.  His  remarks  were  repeatedly  interrupted 
by  outbursts  of  applause.  Mr.  Yancey  responded  to 
the  enthusiastic  demands  of  the  audience,  and  spoke  as 
Yancey  always  spoke.  It  was  his  night  of  triumph. 
The  first  resolution  ever  passed  by  a  pubhc  assemblage 
at  the  Capital  of  the  State  in  favor  of  secession,  had 
just  been  adopted.    He  said  : 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.      463 

"This  night  two  weeks  ago,  I  was  asked,  while 
"  speaking  in  New  York,  what  course  I  would  advise 
^'  Alabama  to  take  in  the  event  that  Lincoln  should  be 
"elected  President.  Acting  in  perfect  good  faith  to 
"  the  issues  presented  by  the  party,  whose  cause  I  ad- 
"  vocated,  and  which  issues  contemplated  a  solution  of 
"  the  political  questions  at  the  ballot-box  only,  within 
"  the  Union,  I  dechned  to  give  utterance  to  my  indi- 
"  vidual  opinions,  which  could  only  tend  to  embarrass 
"  my  friends  and  to  encourage  their  foes,  but  told  the 
"  people  of  New  York  that  I  should  cheerfully  give 
"  that  advice  to  my  fellow-citizens  of  Alabama,  when- 
"  ever  they  should  see  fit  to  ask  it ;  [applause]  and  1 
"  redeem  that  pledge  to-night,  by  saying  that  in  my 
'*  opinion  the  election  of  Abraham  Lincoln  to  the  office 
"  of  President  of  the  United  States  by  the  Black  Re- 
"  publican  party,  taken  in  connection  with  his  own 
"political  utterances,  and  the  views  and  acts  of  his 
"  party  in  Congress,  and  in  the  several  Northern  States, 
"is  an  overt  act  against  the  Constitution  --[applause] 
"  against  the  Constitution,  and  against  the  Union,  [ap- 
"  plause]  and  as  such  should  be  deemed  sufficient  cause 
"  for  a  withdrawal  of  the  State  of  Alabama,  and  a 
"  resumption  of  all  the  powers  she  has  granted  to  the 
"  Union,  by  separate  State  secession.  [Prolonged  ap- 
"  plause.]  And  while  giving  utterance  to  this  advice,  I 
"  repudiate  as  utterly  untrue,  that  in  any  just  sense  I 
"  am  a  Disunionist.  [Applause.]  If  always  to  have 
"  advocated  the  right  of  all  under  the  Constitution — if 
"  never  to  have  assailed  any  single  provision  of  that 
"  Constitution — if  the  advocacy  of  a  policy  of  defense 
"  against  wrong  done  to  Southern  rights — equality  and 
"  honor  within  the  Union,  constitutes  a  Mend  to  that 


'  464      THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

"^more  perfect  Union/  represented  by  the  Constitu- 
"  tion,  then  by  universal  acclaim  I  should  be  held  to 
"  be  a  Union  man,  [applause]  and  if  to-night  I  advise 
"  my  State  to  withdraw  herself  from  this  Federal  Gov- 
"  ernment  in  order  to  protect  her  rights  and  the  rights 
"of her  people  from  wrongs  done  to  them  by  a  viola- 
"  tion  of  that  Constitution  by  a  numerical  power  that 
"  controls  the  government,  I  have  the  judgment  of  the 
*'  Constitution  itself  in  my  favor  and  against  its  viola- 
"  tors,  and  am  no  disunionist.  But,  I  am  not  content 
"  with  my  own  vindication.  That  with  which  we  are 
"  falsely  charged  is  true  of  our  accusers.  [Applause.] 
"  Look  back  at  the  history  of  our  government.  I  will 
"  not  enumerate  the  list  of  grievances  of  which  the 
"  Spirit  of  vthe  Constitution  complains — and  about 
"  which  our  patriotic  Chief  Magistrate  spoke  so  clearly 
"  to-night,  but  I  will  refer  for  a  moment  to  the  acts  of 
"  the  now  dominant  party  upon  the  fugitive  slave  law. 
"  The  Constitution  calls  for  the  enactment  of  this  law 
"  in  plain  terms.  One  of  the  very  first  acts  of  our 
"  patriot  sires  was  to  enact  a  fugitive  slave  law.  The 
"  Constitution,  it  is  well  known,  could  not  have  been 
"formed  without  the  provision  for  the  surrender  of 
"  ftigitive  slaves.  The  Constitution,  too,  is  a  compact, 
"  not  between  the  majority  and  the  minority  of  the 
"  people  of  the  United  States,  but  between  sovereign 
**  States.  It  was  submitted  to  a  Convention  of  each 
"  State  for  its  adoption  or  rejection ;  and  was  for  a  long 
"  time  in  operation  before  two  of  the  original  thirteen 
"  States  concluded  to  come  into  the  Union.  It  is  then 
"  a  compact  between  the  States.  How  has  that  com- 
"pact  been  kept  by  the  Black  Republican  States? 
"  Twelve  of  them  have  passed  laws  nullifying  the  fugi- 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE   CONFEDERACY  465 

"  tive  slave  law  and  provision  in  the  Constitution,  have 
"  made  it  a  crime  in  their  citizens  to  aid  in  its  execu- 
"  tion,  punishing  such  action  by  heavy  fine  and  impris- 
"  onment  in  the  penitentiary.  The  compact,  then,  has 
"  been  broken — the  Union  has  been  dissolved — the 
"  Constitution  has  been  violated  by  this  infamous 
"  party ;  and  now,  when  we,  one  of  the  parties  to  that 
''  compact,  propose  to  act  on  the  well-established  princi- 
"  pie  that  a  compact  broken  in  part  is  broken  as  a 
"  whole,  if  either  party  chooses  to  consider  it,  the  viola- 
"  tors — the  breakers  of  that  compact — those  who  have 
"  themselves  disrupted  the  bonds  of  Union,  cry  out 
"  treason !  disunion !  [Applause.]  Fellow-citizens,  we 
"  have  long  been  released  from  any  obligation  to  con- 
"  tinue  in  association  with  these  Northern  States  under 
"  this  broken,  mutilated  compact.  And  now,  when  the 
"  real,  true  disunionists  have,  at  last,  elected  a  Presi- 
"  dent — by  a  majority  of  electoral  votes — by  a  majority 
"  of  the  popular  vote — by  a  purely  sectional  vote,  and 
"  propose  to  '  inaugurate  the  poUcy  of  the  irrepressible 
"  conflict  into  the  government — which  is  the  end  -of 
"slavery,'  [in  Mr.  Seward's  words,]  we  propose  to 
"  withdraw  from  beneath  such  usurpation  and  power, 
"  and  protect  ourselves.     [Applause.] 

"  There  are  other  States,  each  and  all  having  similar 
"  wrongs  to  complain  of,  and  similar  rights  and  institu- 
"  tions  to  save  and  protect.  If  any  of  those  States 
"  wish  a  consultation  with  us  and  each  other,  it  is  our 
"  duty  to  afford  a  fair  opportunity  for  a  full,  free,  fra- 
''  ternal  interview.  Should  that  take  place,  I  hope,  as 
"  my  friend  Mr.  Watts  expressed  it,  that '  we  may  all  go 
"  together ;'  as  Judge  Goldthwaite  expressed  it,  that  *  we 
"  will  act  together.'     [Applause.]     But  there  is  a  point 


4H6      THE  CRADLE  OP  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

"  beyond  that.  In  the  contingency  that  consultation 
"  shall  not  produce  concert — that  all  will  not  *  act ' — or 
"  '  go  out  together,'  what  then  ?  Shall  we,  like  them, 
"  linger  yet  within  the  desecrated  portals  of  the  gov- 
"  ernment  -shall  we  remain  and  be  all  slaves— shall 
"  we  remain  but  to  share  with  them  the  disgrace 
"  of  inequality  and  dishonor  ?  God  forbid  !  [Tremen- 
"  dous  applause.]  Let  us  act  in  that  event  for  our- 
"  selves. .  [Applause.]  I  have  good  reason  to  believe 
"  that  the  action  of  any  State  will  be  peaceable — will 
"  not  be  resisted — under  the  present,  or  any  probable 
"  prospective  condition  of  Federal  affairs.  I  believe 
''  there  will  not  be  power  to  direct  a  gun  against  a  sov- 
"  ereign  State.  [Applause.]  Certainly  there  will  be 
"  no  will  to  do  so  during  the  present  Administration. 
"  [Applause.]  And  if  resisted,  blood  shed  will  appeal 
"  to  blood  throbbing  in  Southern  bosoms,  and  our 
'^brethren  from  every  Southern  State  will  flock  to 
"  defend  the  soil  of  a  State  which  may  be  threatened 
"  by  mercenary  bayonets.  [Applause.]  It  is  not  all 
",  of  life  to  live,  nor  all  of  death  to  die.  To  do  one's 
"  duty,  is  man's  chief  aim  in  life.  Better  far  to  close 
'^  our  days  by  an  act  of  duty — life's  aims  ftilfilled,  than 
*'  to  prolong  them  for  years — years  filled  with  the  cor- 
"  roding  remembrance  that  we  had  tamely  yielded  to 
"  our  ease  and  our  fears  that  noble  heritage,  which  was 
'•  transmitted  to  us  through  toil,  suffering,  battle  and 
"  victory,  with  the  condition  that  we  likewise  should 
"  transmit  it  unimpaired  to  our  posterity.  [Applause.] 
"  As  for  myself,  rather  than  live  on,  subject  to  a  gov- 
"  ernment  which  breaks  the  compact  at  will,  and  places 
"  me  in  a  position  of  inequality — of  inferiority  to  the 
"  Northern  free  negro — though  that  life  might  be  illus- 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  COKFEDERACY.  467 

'•  tmted  by  gilded  chains — by  luxury  and  by  ease,  I 
"  would  in  the  cause  of  my  State  gather  around  me 
"  some  brave  spirits  who,  however  few  in  number,  would 
"  find  a  grave,  which  my  countrymen — the  world  and 
"  all  future  ages,  should  recognize  as  a  modern  Ther- 
"  mopylse  !     [Prolonged  applause.]  " 

At  the  close  or  Mr.  Yancey's  remarks.  Gen.  Clanton 
was  called  for  by  the  audience.  He  said  that  he  had 
been  always  a  devoted  friend  of  the  Union,  that  even 
in  the  late  canvass  he  had  declared  himself  in  favor  of 
waiting  for  an  overt  act,  but  that  the  immense  majori- 
ties given  to  the  Abolition  ticket  convinced  him  that 
we  had  nothing  to  hope  for  from  the  North,  and  he 
could  iiot  consider  the  liberty  and  property  of  South- 
ern men  safe  in  the  Union.  He  was  for  immediate 
secession.  Gen.  Clanton  said  that  be  had  never  here- 
tofore agreed  with  Mr.  Yancey  and  those  who  thought 
with  him,  that  one  month  ago  he  thought  he  never 
would  agree  with  them,  but  that  now  he  was  willing  to 
bury  the  hatchet  and  unite  with  all  true  Southern  men 
in  establishing  a  free  and  independent  government  of 
slaveholding  States.  The  facts  which  had  induced 
Gen.  Clanton  to  forego  his  intention  of  waiting  for  the 
commission  of  an  unconstitutional  act  by  the  Lincoln 
Administration  before  establishing  a  separate  govern- 
ment, had  arisen  just  before  the  close  of  the  canvass  and 
since  the  election.  Wendell  Phillips,  the  boldest  and 
most  philosophic  leaderof  the  Lincoln  party,  had  declared, 
and  the  declaration  had  been  repeated  bythe  press  and 
from  the  rostrum  until  it  had  become  a  party  cry  : 
"  No  man  has  a  right  to  be  surprised  at  this  state  of 
"  things.  It  is  just  what  we  have  attempted  to  bring 
"  about.     It  is  the  first  sectional  party  ever  organized 


468      THE  CRADLE  OP  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

"  in  this  country.  It  does  not  know  its  own  face,  and 
"  calls  itself  national ;  but  it  is  not  national — it  is  sec- 
"tional.  The  Republican  party  is  a  party  of  the 
"  North  pledged  against  the  South."  It  was  now  an- 
nounced that  Mr.  Seward  would  be  Secretary  of  State. 
In  his  "  Irrepressible  conflict  "  speech  he  had  asserted 
that  the  "  United  States  must  and  will,  sooner  or  later, 
"  become  either  entirely  a  slave-holding  nation  or 
"  entirely  a  free-labor  nation."  These  declarations  of 
hostility  to  the  South  had  been  repeated  oftener  as  the 
canvass  approached  a  close,  and  on  the  6th  of  Novem- 
ber few  persons.  North  or  South,  failed  to  understand 
that  the  election  of  Lincoln  was  to  be  the  restriction 
and  ultimate  dstruction  of  slavery  without  regard  to  law 
or  courts.  On  that  day  the  State  governments  at  the 
North  had  passed  into  or  had  been  retained  in  the 
hands  of  the  Repubhcan  party  by  overwhelming  ma- 
jorities— a  party  which  freely  boasted  that  the  Personal 
Liberty  Laws  should  remain  in  force,  and  the  Fugitive 
Slave  Law  remain  nuUified.  Gen.  Clanton  believed 
that  nothing  could  ^e  longer  hoped  for  from  the  temper 
of  the  North — that,  although  the  Lincoln  Administra- 
tion might  be  trammelled  for  four  years  by  a  hostile 
Congress  and  Court,  at  the  end  of  that  time  the  power 
of  all  the  Departments  would  pass  into  the  hands  of 
the  Repubhcan  party,  and  the  South,  with  her  forts 
and  arsenals  guarded  by  large  garrisons,  and  with  her 
territory  occupied  by  the  troops  of  the  Presidential 
Commander-in-Chief,  would  find  herself  unable  to  assert 
her  independence  when  the  overt  act  should  be  com- 
mitted. 

There  was  another  incentive  which  urged  him  most 
powerfully  to  declare  for  instant  secession.     It  was  to 


i'flE  CRAJ)LE  OF  THE  OONFEDEEACY.  469 

preserve  a  Constitutional  Union.  He  had  come  to 
believe  that  the  secession  of  the  Southern  States  would 
be  peaceably  acquiesced  in  by  the  North,  that  it  would 
be  followed  by  a  call  for  a  general  Convention  of  the 
States  at  which  the  questions  in  dispute  might  be 
weighed  and  accommodated  and  the  Union  reconstruct- 
ed upon  the  principles  of  the  Constitution,  well-defined 
and  accepted.  It  may  be  a  matter  of  wonder  that  a 
man  of  the  political  sagacity  and  general  intelHgence 
of  Gen.  Clanton  should  have  believed  for  a  moment 
that  the  secession  of  the  Cotton  States  would  be  acqui- 
esced in  by  the  General  Government.  He  did  not 
bejieve  so  until  after  the  election,  and  then  his  belief 
was  based  upon  the  clear  declaration  of  one  of  the 
leaders  of  the  Republican  party  that  secession  ought 
not  to  be  interfered  with.  rThat  secession  might  be, 
and  doubtless  would  be,  a  peaceable  measure,  was 
almost  universally  believed  by  the  secession  party  of 
the  South.  The  military  preparations  made  by  the 
States  would  barely  have  secured  an  efficient  border 
and  coast  police.  The  money  and  supplies  voted  for 
military  purposes  would  not  have  fed  an  army  a  month. 
So  contemptible  were  the  preparations  for  defence,  so 
meagre  the  supplies  for  action,  so  few  the  muskets  and 
accoutrements,  that  nothing  could  have  relieved  the 
Legislatures  of  the  seceding  States  from  a  charge  of 
insanity  except  a  firm  behef  in  their  minds  that  there 
would  be  no  necessity  for  armies — that  there  would  be 
no  coercionj  As  an  illustration  of  the  delusion  upon 
this  subject,  even  with  prominent  statesmen  and  mili- 
tary men.  Gen.  Clanton  was  accustomed  to  tell  how, 
when  a  few  months  later  than  the  election,  a  cavalry 
regiment  of  militia,  of  which  he  was  a  field  officer,  was 


470      THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

offered  to  President  Davis,  the  reply  was  that  the  Con- 
federacy would  not  need  cavalry,  that  it  would  be  an 
infantry  war,  and  that  a  few  regiments  of  infantry 
would  be  sufficient.  This  feeling  of  security  was 
exhibited  throughout  the  Southern  press.  "  We  can 
"  now  enforce  a  peaceable  secession,"  exclaimed  the 
Advertiser.  Mr.  Yancey;  fresh  from  his  Northern 
tour,  declared  :  "  I  have  good  reason  to  believe  that 
^*  the  action  of  any  State  will  be  peaceable  —  will  not  be 
"  resisted — under  the  present  or  any  probable  prospec- 
"  tive  condition  of  Federal  affairs."  It  was  understood 
at  the  South  that  the  views  of  Mr.  Seward,  the  leading 
spirit  of  the  Republican  party,  and  of  Mr.  Charles 
Francis  Adams,  who  had  been  a  candidate  for  the 
Vice-Presidency  upon  the  Abolition  ticket  as  early  as 
1848,  were  those  of  the  illustrious  John  Quincey  Adams. 
That  distinguished  gentleman,  in  his  '^Diwscourse 
"  delivered  before  the  New  York  Historical  Society," 
on  the  fiftieth  anniversary  of  Gen.  Washington's  inaug- 
uration as  President,  had  admitted  the  natural  right  of 
the  people  of  a  State  to  secede  from  the  Union,  whilst 
deprecating  its  exercise.     He  had  said  : 

"  But  the  indissoluble  link  of  Union  between  the 
"  people  of  the  several  States  of  this  confederated  nation 
"  is,  after  all,  not  in  the  right,  but  in  the  heart  If  the 
"  day  should  ever  come  (may  Heaven  avert  it)  when 
"  the  affections  of  the  people  of  these  States  shall  be 
"  ahenated  from  each  other ;  when  the  fraternal  spirit 
"  shall  give  way  to  cold  indifference,  or  collision  of 
"  interest  shall  fester  into  hati-ed,  the  bands  of  political 
"  association  will  not  long  hold  together  parties  no 
"  longer  attracted  by  the  magnetism  of  conciliated  inter- 
"  ests  and  kindly  sympathies  ;  and  fe,r  better  will  it  be 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.      47l 

'Mbr  the  people  of  the  disunited  States  to  part  in  friend- 
"  ship  from  each  other,  than  to  be  held  together  by 
"constraint.  Then  will  be  the  time  for  reverting  to 
"  the  precedents  which  occurred  at  the  formation  and 
"  adoption  of  the  Constitution,  to  form  again  a  more 
"  perfect  Union  by  deploring  that  which  could  no  longer 
"  bind,  and  to  leave  the  separated  parts  to  be  re-united 
"  by  the  law  of  pohtical  gravitation  to  the  centre." 

Such  was  the  opinion  of  the  younger  Adams,  and 
such,  it  was  believed,  was  the  opinion  of  the  profounder 
thinkers  of  New  England.  To  confirm  the  delusion 
engendered  at  the  South  by  such  admissions  as  these, 
appeared  an  editorial  in  the  New  York  Tribune,  three 
days  after  the  election,  written  by  Mr.  Horace  Gree- 
ley, in  which  the  following  sentiments  were  announced  : 
"T^f  the  Cotton  States  shall  become  satisfied  that  they 
"  can  do  better  out  of  the  Union  than  in  it,  we  insist  on 
"  letting  them  go  m  peace.  The  right  to  secede  may 
"  be^  a  revolutionary  one,  but  it  exists  nevertheless. 
a*      #      ^      ^^Q  j^yg^  gygj.  rgsjgi;  tjjg  right  of  any 

"  State  to  remain  in  the  Union  and  nullify  or  defy  the 
"  laws  thereof  To  withdraw  from  the  Union  is  quite 
"  another  matter ;  and  whenever  a  considerable  section 
"  of  our  Union  shall  deliberately  resolve  to  go  out,  we 
"  shall  resist  all  coercive  measures  designed  to  keep 
"  it  in.  We  hope  never  to  live  in  a  Republic  whereof 
"  one  section  is  pinned  to  another  by  bayonets." 

This  declaration  of  Mr,  Greeley,  one  of  the  founders 
of  the  Free  Soil  party,  and  its  ablest  advocate  with  the 
pen,  was  telegraphed  all  over  the  South.  It  threw  into 
the  ranks  of  the  Secessionists  thousands  upon  thousands 
of  those  who  had  heretofore  wavered ;  and  showed  to 
many  thousands  more  a  door  of  escape  by  which  a 


4<r2  THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

more  perfect  Union  might  be  formed — in  the  language 
of  Mr.  Adams,  "  By  dissolving  that  which  could  no 
"  longer  bind,"  and  leaving  "  the  separated  parts  to  be 
"  reunited  by  the  law  of  pohtical  gravitation  to  the 
"  centre."  Mr.  Greeley  continued  his  appeals  in 
behalf  of  the  right  of  the  South  to  be  let  alone.  On 
the  17th  of  December,  three  days  before  the  secession 
of  South  Carolina,  he  said  : 

"If  it  [the  Declaration  of  Independence]  justifies 
"  the  secession  from  the  British  Empire  of  three  millions 
"  of  colonists  in  1776,  we  do  not  see  why  it  would  not 
"  justify  the  secession  of  five  millions  of  Southrons  from 
"  the  Federal  Union  in  1861.  If  we  are  mistaken  on 
"  this  point,  why  does  not  some  one  attempt  to  show 
"  wherein  and  why  ?  For  our  own  part,  while  we  deny 
"  the  right  of  slaveholders  to  hold  slaves  against  the 
"  will  of  the  latter,  we  cannot  see  how  twenty  millions 
"  of  people  can  rightfullyhold  ten,  or  even  five,  in  a 
"  detested  Union  with  them  by  military  force.  '^  * 
"  If  seven  or  eight  contiguous  States  shall  pre- 
''  sent  themselves  authentically  at  Washington, 
"  saying :  '  We  hate  the  Federal  Union ;  we  have 
^'  withdrawn  from  it ;  we  give  you  the  choice  between 
"  acquiescing  in  our  secession  and  arranging  amicably 
"  all  incidental  questions  on  the  one  hand,  and  attempt- 
"  ing  to  subdue  us  on  the  other  ;'  we  could  not  stand 
"  up  for  coercion,  for  subjugation,  for  we  do  not  think 
"  it  would  be  just.  We  hold  the  right  of  self-go vern- 
"  ment,  even  when  invoked  in  behalf  of  those  who 
"  deny  it  to  others.  So  much  for  the  question  of  prin- 
"  ciple."*] 

In  this  course  the  Tribune  persisted  from  the  date 
of  Mr.  Lincoln's  election  until  after  his  inauguration? 


THE  CEADLE  OP  THE  CONFEDERACY.  473 

employing  such  remarks  as  the  following :  "  Any 
"  attempt  to  compel  them  by  force  to  remain,  would  be 
"  contrary  to  the  principles  enunciated  in  the  immortal 
''  Declaration  of  Independence,  contrary  to  the  funda- 
"  mental  ideas  on  which  human  liberty  is  based." 

Even  after  the  Cotton  States  had  formed  their  Con- 
federacy and  adopted  a  provisional  Constitution  at 
Montgomery,  it  gave  them  encouragement  to  proceed 
in  the  following  language  :  "  We  have  repeatedly  said, 
"  and  we  once  more  insist,  that  the  great  principle  em- 
^'  bodied  by  Jefferson  in  the  Declaration  of  American 
*'  Independence,  that  governments  derive  their  just 
"  powers  from  consent  of  the  governed,  is  sound  and 
"just ;  and  that  if  the  Slave  States,  the  Cotton  States, 
"  or  the  Gulf  States  only,  choose  to  form  an  independ- 
"  ent  nation,  they  have  a  clear  moral  right  to  do  so. 
"  Whenever  it  shall  be  clear  that  the  great  body  of 
"  Southern  people  have  become  conclusively  alienated 
"  from  the  Union,  and  anxious  to  escape  from  it,  we 
"  will  do  our  best  to  forward  their  views." 

Mr.  Geeeley  was  not  alone  in  his  opinion  that  the 
South  should  be  let  alone.  The  Cincinnati  Commercial, 
a  leading  Western  journal,  said  as  late  as  March,  1861 : 
"  We  are  not  in  favor  of  blockading  the  Southern  coast. 
"  We  are  not  in  favor  of  retaking  by  force  the  property 
"  of  the  United  States  now  in  possession  of  the  seceders. 
"  We  would  recognize  the  existence  of  a  Government 
"  formed  of  all  the  slaveholding  States,  and  attempt  to 
"  cultivate  amicable  relations  with  it." 

Mr.  Thurlow  Weed,  who,  if  any  one,  represented  the 
wishes  of  Mr.  Seward,  said  in  his  newspaper,  the  Albany 
Journal :  "  The  chief  architects  of  the  rebellion,  before 
"  it  broke  out,  avowed  that  they  were  aided  in  their 


4t4  THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CON^EDEEAC^lT. 

"infernal  designs  by  the  ultra-Abolitionists  of  the 
"  North.  This  was  too  true,  for  withoui  such  aid  the 
"  South  could  never  have  heen  united  against  the  Unions 
In  a  published  letter  of  Gen.  F.  P.  Blair,  he  says : 
"  When  the  rebellion  broke  out,  Mr  Chase  used  this 
"  language  :  '  The  South  is  not  worth  fighting  for  /' 
"  !^everal  gentlemen  of  high  position  in  the  country 
"  heard  him  utter  this  sentiment  substantially.  He 
"  was  at  that  time  Secretary  of  the  Treasury.  =^  =^  =^ 
"  Jeff  Davis  said,  '  Let  us  alone  !'  Chase  said  '  Let 
""  them  doner'' 

"  Let  them  alone,"  "Let  them  go,"  was  the  cry  of 
nearly  all  the  leading  Republican  journals  and  politi- 
cians. The  New  York  press  was  almost  a  unit  for  per- 
mitting peaceable  secession.  The  Herald,  Harpers 
WeeUy,  the  Day  Booh,  the  Tribune,  all  said,  "Let 
"  the  South  go."  The  General  commanding  the 
armies,  the  veteran  Scott,  also  joined  the  cry  and  said  : 
"  Wayward  sisters,  depart  in  peace  .'"  That  these  dis- 
tinguished officers,  statesmen  and  journalists  afterwards 
yielded  their  views  to  the  clamor  of  a  mob,  does  not 
affect  the  fact  that  such  views  were  widely  entertained, 
were  believed  to  be  the  views  of  the  people  of  the  North, 
and  were  accepted  as  such  by  a  large  body  of  Southern 
citizens  who  otherwise  would  probably  have  thrown 
their  influence  against  secession.  The  editorial  of  Mr. 
Greeley  upon  the  heels  of  the  election,  and  while 
Southern  blood  was  hot,  confirmed  the  announcement 
of  Mr.  Yancey  that  the  South  would  be  let  alone,  and 
did  more  to  secure  the  secession  of  Alabama,  Georgia 
and  other  Gulf  States  than  all  else  besides.  The  seces- 
sion party  had  all  along  been  in  a  minority  in  Ala- 
bama.    The  vote  for  Mr.  Breckinridge  was  not  com- 


tflB  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.  475 

posed  entirely  of  secessionists  ;  while  the  vote  for  Mr. 
Bell  and  Mr.  Douglas  was  composed  almost  entirely 
of  Union  men.  Now,  to  the  compact  mass  of  seces- 
sionists was  added  a  large  element  of  the  old  Whig 
party,  who  beUeved  that  by  the  speedy  secession  of  all 
the  Southern  States  the  Union  could  be  reconstructed 
upon  a  stronger  constitutional  basis. 

While  men  like  Clanton  believed  that  the  safest 
course  at  this  juncture  was  to  push  forward  boldly,  form 
the  new  government,  and  amicably  adjust  terms  for 
reunion ;  and  while  Watts,  Judge  and  other  old-line 
Whigs  believed  that  no  adjustment  was  longer  possible, 
and  that  secession  should  be  resorted  to  without  regard 
to  whether  it  might  be  peaceable  or  otherwise,  there 
was  still  a  formidable  body  of  citizens,  away  from  the 
Hues  of  railroads,  on  the  hills  and  in  the  valleys  of  the 
mountain  country,  who  put  no  faith  in  the  promises  of 
the  Northern  enemy,  and  no  confidence  in  secession  as 
a  peaceful  or  revolutionary  remedy  for  grievances. 
These  men  were,  for  the  most  part,  engaged  in  agricul- 
tural pursuits,  they  were  non-slaveholders.  They  had 
sustained  Jackson  as  a  Union  Democrat  and  Clay  as  a 
Union  Whig.  They  had  no  leaders  of  marked  ability. 
If  they  had  possessed  a  leader  with  the  fire  of  Yancey 
or  the  industry  of  Watts,  the  honesty  of  Pettus  or  the 
courage  of  Judge,  the  result  in  Alabama  might  have 
been  different ;  Nicholas  Davis  was  brave,  Jere 
Clemens  was  eloquent,  Bulger  was  firm  as  a  rock,  and 
Jemison  was  discreet ;  but  none  of  the  Union  leaders,  if 
leaders  they  could  now .  be  called,  possessed  the  power 
of  Yancey  to  breast  the  whirlwind  and  the  tide  until 
the  passing  of  the  storm. 

The  meeting  at  which  Clanton,  Judge,  Goldthwaite, 


476      THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

and  Watts  all  took  their  stand  by  the  side  of  Yancey, 
appointed  a  committee  to  wait  upon  the  Governor  and 
learn  his  intentions  with  reference  to  calling  a  Skate 
Convention.  Governor  Moore  replied  that  in  accord- 
ance with  the  resolutions  of  the  last  Legislature,  he 
would  issue  his  proclamation  calling  for  the  election  of 
delegates  to  a  State  Convention  so  soon  as  the  Electo- 
ral Colleges  cast  their  votes.  He  appointed  Dec.  24th 
as  the  day  for  the  election,  and  Jan.  4th  as  the  day  for 
assembling.  The  Governor  proceeded  to  say  why,  in 
his  opinion,  Alabama  should  secede  : 

"  They  [the  Republicans]  have  now  succeeded  by 
"  large  majorities,  in  all  the  non-slaveholding  States, 
"  except  New  Jersey,  and  perhaps  in  Oregon  and  CaH- 
"  fornia,  in  electing  xv^r.  Lincoln,  who  is  pledged  to 
"  carry  out  the  principles  of  the  party  that  elected  him. 
"  The  course  of  events  show  clearly  that  this  party  will 
"  in  a  short  time  hav4  a  majority  in  both  branches  of 
"  Congress.  It  will  then  be  in  their  power  to  change 
"  the  complexion  of  the  Supreme  Court  so  as  to  make 
"  it  harmonize  with  Congress  and  the  President.  When 
"  that  party  gets  possession  of  all  the  Departments  V)f 
"  the  Government  with  the  purse  and  the  sword,  he 
"  must  be  blind  indeed  who  does  not  see  that  slavery 
"  will  be  abolished  in  the  District  of  Columbia,  in  the 
*'  dock-yards  and  arsenals  and  wherever  the  Federal 
"  Government  has  jurisdiction.  It  will  be  excluded 
"  from  the  Territories,  and  other  Free  States  will  in  hot 
"  haste  be  admitted  into  the  Union  until  they  have  a 
"  majority  to  alter  the  Constitution.  Then  slavery  will  be 
"  abolished  by  law  in  the  States,  and  the  '  irrepressible 
"  conflict '  will  end ;  for  we  are  notified  that  it  shall 
"  never  cease  until  ^  the  foot  of  the  slave  shall  cease  to 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.      477 

"  tread  the  soil  of  the  United  States.'  The  state  of 
"  society  that  must  exist  in  the  Southern  States  with 
"  four  millions  of  free  negroes  and  their  increase  turned 
**  loose  upon  them,  I  will  not  discuss — it  is  too  horrible 
"  to  contemplate." 

The  Governor  then  dismisses  the  dangerous  part  of 
the  question  with  this  dash  of  his  pen  : 
7"  If  a  State  withdraws  from  the  Union,  the  Federal 
"  Government  has  no  power,  under  the  Constitution,  to 
"  use  the  military  force  against  her,  for  there  is  no  law 
'^  to  enforce  the  submission  of  a  sovereign  State,  nor 
"  would  such  a  withdrawal  be  either  an  insurrection  or 
"  an  invasion."^ 

Now  that  tfie  Governor  had  called  an  election  for  a 
State  Convention,  it  was  remembered  and  published 
that  Mr.  Yancey,  at  the  Commercial  Convention  two 
years  before,  had  said  that  if  he  should  go  for  disunion 
because  of  the  election  of  Mr.  Seward  to  the  Presi- 
dency, he  would  be  going  in  the  wake  of  an  inferior 
issue,  he  would  be  doing  an  unconstitutional  thing, 
could  be  arraigned  as  a  rebel  and  traitor,  and  be  hanged 
for  violating  the  laws  and  Constitution  of  his  country. 
It  became  necessary  for  him  to  explain  away  that 
speech,  and  to  do  so  he  published  a  letter  in  which  oc- 
curred the  following  paragraph : 

"  I  remember  well  the  views  I  then  entertained 
"  and  then  expressed.  Mr.  Hilliard,  as  I  understood 
"  him,  had  expressed  the  opinion  that  the  South  was 
"  then  on  rising  ground  as  to  Federal  affairs,  and  that 
"  there  was  no  just  cause  of  complaint  in  the  past ;  but 
"  that  if  a  Black  Republican  should  be  elected  Presi- 
"  dent  in  1860,  the  South  should  resist.  I  contended 
"  that  there  were  causes  in  the  past  action  of  the  anti- 


478      THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

"  slavery  party  which  would  justify  secession — and  in 
"  order  to  rebuke  the  tameness  of  spirit,  as  well  as  in- 
"  consistency,  involved  in  Mr.  Hilliard's  position,  I 
*'  presented  the  argument  that  an  election  of  a  Black 
"  Republican,  under  the  form  of  law,  was,  -per  S6,|in 
"  itself,  constitutional,  and  if  considered  without  refer- 
"  ence  to  the  past  action  and  avowed  aims  of  the  party 
"  electing  him,  was  in  my  opinion  no  cause  for  disun- 
"  ion,  but  if  considered  as  an  accumulative  fact,  the 
"  culminating  movement  and  grand  success  of  a  party, 
"  which  for  near  forty  yealfs  had  been  warring  on 
"  slavery  and  the  South,  and  had  in  several  instances 
"  (as  to  slave-trade  in  the  District  of  Columbia,  Mis- 
"  souri  Compromise,  and  nullifying  the  fugitive  slave 
"  law)  violated  the  constitutional  compact  between  the 
"  States,  it  would  overflow  the  cup  of  our  wrongs,  and 
*'  be  the  point  beyond  which  forbearance  would  cease  to 
"  be  a  virtue.  In  other  words,  my  position  was  as  to 
*^  one  occupying  Mr.  Hilliard's  position  ;  the  election  of 
"  a  Black  Republican  was  an  inferior  issue.  Whereas, 
"  to  one  occupying  my  position,  disunion  could  be  jus- 
"  tified  before  such  an  election,  and  such  an  election 
"  would  be  but  another  incentive  to  it " 

This  satisfied  his  friends ;  and  forthwith  they  had 
the  weight  of  his  name  for  separate  State  secession,  and 
his  assurance  that  he  had  reason  to  believe  that  there 
would  be  no  attempt  at  coercion  by  the  existing  or  the 
next  administration. 

A  contest  now  commenced  between  the  advocates  of 
separate  State  secession  and  the  advocates  of  co-opera- 
tive secession.  So  high  was  public  excitement  that  no 
one  was  willing  to  be  spoken  of  as  a  submissionist.  The 
secessionist  and  the  co-operationist  alike  declared  that 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.      479 

they  would  not  submit  to  a  Republican  Administration. 
But  while  the  secessionist  intended  his  declaration  lite- 
rally, the  co-operationist  intended  it  to  mean  that  he 
would  not  submit  to  unconstitutional  acts,  such  as 
would  be  acts  of  the  administration  as  contradistin- 
guished from  legitimate  acts  of  the  Government.  They 
would  submit  to  the  Government  but  would  not  submit 
to  a  tyrannical  Administration.  That  the  co-operation 
party  stood  pledged  to  some  kind  of  secession,  does 
not  appear  substantiated.  It  is  true  that  before  the 
election,  the  General  Assembly,  with  but  one  or  two 
dissenting  voices,  had  passed  the  joint  resolutions  calling 
a  State  Convention  to  consider,  determine  and  to  do 
what  was  necessary  for  the  safety  of  Alabama  in  the 
event  of  Republican  success.  But  it  is  certain  that  the 
vote  would  not  have  been  so  nearly  a  unit  had  not  the 
anti-secessionists  believed  that  the  resolutions  were  sus- 
ceptible of  two  constructions.  Upon  examining  those 
resolutions  we  find  the  Assembly  declaring  that  whereas 
the  Republican  party  "  hopes  by  success  in  the  ap- 
"  proaching  Presidential  election  to  seize  the  govern- 
"  ment  itself,"  and  whereas,  "  to  permit  such  seizure 
ii^  ^  *  would  be  an  act  of  suicidal  folly  and  mad- 
"  ness,"  therefore,  they  *^  deem  it  their  solemn  duty  to 
"  provide  in  advance  the  means  by  which  they  may 
"  escape  such  peril  and  dishonor,  and  devise  new  secu- 
*'  rities  for  perpetuating  the  blessings  of  liberty."'  This 
language,  it  must  be  readily  seen,  was  such  as  might 
be  adopted  by  either  a  secessionist  or  an  anti-secession- 
ist. If  it  was  the  design  of  the  Republicans  to  seise 
the  government  in  defiance  of  the  Senate  and  Supreme 
Court,  then  the  Union  men  and  all  were  ready  to 
provide  means  for  escaping  the  peril.     Those  means 


480      THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

might  be  provided,  however,  within  the  Union.  "  Let 
"  us  fight  within  the  Union  !"  was  the  cry  of  a  large 
body  of  the  people,  embracing  statesmen  of  distinction, 
conspicuously  among  whom  was  Henry  A.  Wise. 

Nor  was  the  Union  man  and  Co-operationist  in 
their  opinion  committed  to  some  kind  of  secession  by 
the  resolution  adopted  unanimously  on  the  first  day  of 
the  session  of  the  Alabama  Convention.  The  resolu- 
tion as  offered  by  Mr.  Whatley,  of  Calhoun,  was  as 
follows : 

"  Whereas,  The  only  bond  of  Union  between  the 
"  several  States  is  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States ; 
"  and,  whereas,  that  Constitution  has  been  violated  both 
"  by  the  Government  of  the  United  States  and  by  a  ma- 
"  jority  of  Northern  States,  in  their  separate  legislative 
"  action,  denying  to  the  people  of  the  Southern  States 
"  their  constitutional  rights ; 

"  And,  whereas,  a  sectional  party  known  as  the 
"  Black  Republican  party,  has  in  the  recent  election 
"  elected  Abraham  Lincoln  to  the  office  of  President, 
"  and  Hannibal  Hamlin  to  the  office  of  Vice-President 
"  of  these  United  States,  upon  the  avowed  principle 
"  that  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  does  not 
"recognize  property  in  slaves,  and  that  the  Govern- 
"  ment  should  prevent  its  extension  into  the  common 
"  territories  of  the  United  States,  and  that  the  power 
"  of  the  Government  should  be  so  exercised  that  slavery 
"  in  time  should  he  exterminated ;  Therefore,  be  it 

"  Resolved,  By  the  people  of  Alabama,  in  solemn 
"  Convention  assembled,  that  these  acts  and  designs 
"  constitute  such  a  violation  of  the  compact  between 
"  the  several  States  as  absolves  the  people  of  Alabama 
"  from  all  obligations  to  support  a  government  of  the 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.      481 

"  United  States  to  be  administered  upon  such  princi- 
"  pies,  and  that  the  people  of  Alabama  will  not  submit 
"  to  be  parties  to  the  inauguration  and  administration 
'*  of  Abraham  Lincoln  as  President,  and  Hannibal 
"  Hamlin  as  Vice-President  of  the  United  States  of 
"  America." 

This  resolution  was  offered  in  the  Alabama  Conven- 
tion, as  was  said  by  the  mover,  to  test  whether  any 
delegates  were  in  favor  of  submitting  to  Lincoln's  Ad- 
ministration. "  I  desire  to  ascertain,"  said  he,  "  the 
'^  sense  of  this  body  upon  the  question  of  submission  or 
"  resistance."  Mr.  Smith,  of  Tuscaloosa,  said :  "  Pre- 
"  sent  a  naked  question  of  resistance  to  Black  Repub- 
"  lican  rule,  and  you  will  doubtless  receive  a  unani- 
"  mous  vote  in  favor  of  it.  But  do  not  so  interlard  it 
"  with  generalities  and  political  abstractions  that  we 
"  shall  be  forced  to  reject  the  good  on  account  of  its 
"  too  close  association  with  the  evil.  I  object  particu- 
"  larly  to  make  an  intimation  that  I  would  oppose  by 
"  force  the  inauguration  of  Lincoln.  I  would  not  have 
''  anything  to  do  with  that  in  any  way.  I  deprecate 
"  the  idea  of  intimating  to  the  people,  even  remotely, 
"that  the  laws  ought  not  to  be  respected."  Mr. 
Posey,  of  Lauderdale,  said  :  '*  We  intend  to  resist.  It 
"  is  not  our  purpose  to  submit  to  the  doctrines  asserted 
"  at  ChicagOj  but  our  resistance  is  based  upon  consulta- 
"tion  and  in  unity  of  action  with  the  other  slave 
"  States."  It  was  well  understood  on  all  sides  that  a 
resistance  based  upon'  consultation  with  the  other  Slave 
States,  would  be  simply  a  peaceful  resistance  at  the 
polls.  The  resolution  as  proposed  by  Mr.  Whatley 
was  finally  amended  and  passed  unanimously,  in  the 
following  shape : 


482      THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

"  Resolved^  By  the  people  of  Alabama,  in  Conven- 
**  tion  assembled,  that  the  State  of  Alabama  cannot  and 
"  will  not  submit  to  the  administration  of  Lincoln  and 
*^  Hamlin  as  President  and  Vice-President  of  the 
"  United  States  upon  the  principles  referred  to  in  the 
"  preamble." 

This  resolution  was  a  clear  evasion  of  the  whole 
question.  It  was  simply  a  declaration  that  the  people 
would  not  submit  to  Lincoln's  administration  if  certain 
things  as  expressed  in  Mr.  Whatley's  preamble  were 
true.  But  Mr.  Posey  had  just  denied  that  the  matters 
set  out  in  the  preamble  were  true.  He  said :  "  I 
'^  oppose  the  resolutions  because  the  first  recital  in  the 
"  preamble  places  resistance  to  Mr.  Lincoln's  Adminis- 
"  tration  upon  the  aggressions  of  the  Federal  Govern- 
"  ment  as  well  as  those  of  the  Northern  States.  The 
"  last  charge  is  true ;  the  first  is  not  true." 

The  passage  of  this  conditional  resolution  unani- 
mously has  been  held  by  those  who  are  unwilling  to 
acknowledge  that  a  political  adversary  may  evade  a 
question  as  a  declaration  that  the  Co-operationists,  as  a 
party,  favored  secession  in  some  shape.  They  forget 
that  the  opponents  of  secession  in  ]  850  adopted  similar 
tactics  with  success.  While  favoring  co-operation,  as 
at  the  Nashville  Convention,  they  took  care  that  the 
co-operation  should  be  in  favor  of  peace  and  Union. 
That  the  above  resolution  as  adopted  was  not  con- 
strued by  them  to  mean  necessarily  some  kind  of 
secession  or  disunion,  is  satisfactorily  shown  by  the 
sentiments  of  co-operation  the  members  expressed 
throughout  the  proceedings,  and  finally  upon  the  adop- 
tion of  the  ordinance  of  secession.  Thus  the  minority 
report  upon  the  question  of  secession  laid  down  "  a  basis 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.      483 

"  for  a  settlement  of  the  existing  difficulties  between 
"  the  Northern  and  the  Southern  States."  This  report, 
and  the  plan  of  a  Convention  for  all  the  slave-holding 
States  at  Nashville,  looked  not  to  resistance,  not  to 
certain  secession  in  some  mode,  but  to  a  continued 
Union.  This  minority  report  was  endorsed  by  all  the 
co-operation  members  and  received  45  votes  as  against 
54.  It  was  reported  by  Mr.  Clemens,  of  Madison,  and 
may  be  taken  as  the  authoritative  expression  of  the  views 
of  the  Co-operation  party.  The  basis  for  a  settlement 
upon  which  the  Union  might  be  maintained  was  not 
presented  as  a  sine  qua  non  ;  the  report  provided  that 
it  was  not  to  be  regarded  as  "  absolute  and  unaltera- 
"  ble."  The  remarks  of  members  also  indicated  that 
whatever  might  be  the  meaning  of  the  resolution  not  to 
submit,  it  did  not  mean  that  they  were  not  to  make 
one  more  efiort  to  preserve  the  Union.  Said  Mr. 
Clarke,  of  Lawrence  :  "  Is  the  great  Constitution  under 
"  which  we  live-  covering  this  whole  country — is  it  to 
"  be  thawed  and  melted  away  by  secession  as  the  snows 
"  on  the  mountains  ?  No,  sir !  No,  sir !  I  will  not 
"  state  what  might  produce  disruption  of  the  Union ; 
"  but,  sir,  I  see  as  plainly  as  I  see  the  sun  in  heaven 
•"  what  that  disruption  itself  must  produce."  Again, 
speaking  of  the  plan  for  a  Convention  at  Nashville,  Mr. 
Clarke  said  :  "  If  some  plan  of  reconciliation  were  de- 
"  vised  by  it  which  should  satisfy  the  demands  of  the 
"  Southern  States,  as  I  confidently  believe  would  be 
"  done,  certainly  every  good  patriot  would  hail  it  with 
"  delight."  Mr.  Posey  said :  "  We  would  make  one 
"more  effort  to  preserve  the  Federal  Government." 
Mr.  Winston,  of  DeKalb,  said :  "  I  represent  a  constitu- 
"  ency  opposed  to  this  hasty  dissolutiQn  of  the  best 


484      THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

"  government  the  world  ever  knew."  He  said  further, 
''  that  an  effort  should  be  made  in  the  Union  to  adjust 
"  our  existing  difficulties  with  the  North." 

Senator  Fitzpatrick,  whose  residence  was  in  Autauga 
county,  only  a  few  miles  from  Montgomery,  was  one 
of  the  recognized  leaders  of  the  Co-operation  party. 
As  Mr.  Fitzpatrick  had  so  often  defeated  the  policy  of 
Mr.  Yancey,  it  was  now  a  labor  to  which  the  advocates 
for  secession  devoted  themselves  most  assiduously  to 
defeat  the  wishes  of  the  Senator.  Bolling  Hall,  a ' 
warm  personal  and  party  friend  of  Mr.  Fitzpatrick, 
became  the  candidate  of  the  Co-operationists  for  a  seat 
in  the  Convention  from  Autauga  county,  and  the  con- 
test between  him  and  his  opponent  was  one  of  the  most 
bitter  in  the  State.  A  correspondent  of  the  Advertiser^ 
writing  from  that  county  and  describing  a  debate 
between  the  candidates,  gives  a  fair  idea  of  the  political 
contest.     He  says  : 

"  As  the  policy  of  co-operation  was  first  inaugurated 
"  in  this  county,  by  Hall  and  Fitzpatrick,  a  great  desire 
"  was  manifested  on  the  part  of  our  citizens  to  hear 
"  what  the  Major  [Hall]  had  to  say  in  its  defense. 
"  Leading  off  in  a  debate,  he  consumed  an  hour  and  a 
"  half  in  a  vain  attempt  to  explain  the  unfortunate  polit- 
"  ical  position  which  he  occupies  before  the  people  of 
"  Autauga  county.  We  have  heard  him  often,  and  we 
"  must  confess  that  it  was  the  most  futile  eflort  that  we 
"  have  ever  heard  him  make.  His  mind  seemed  alto- 
"  gether  clouded  with  the  subject;  and  so  desultory 
"  were  his  remarks,  that  all  their  force  was  lost.  He 
"  was  openly  for  co-operation,  however,  but  said  *  he 
""  was  afraid  that  even  that  would  lead  to  secession  at 
"  last.'     He  was  opposed  to  Alabama  seceding  without 


•     THE  CRADLE  OP  THE  CONFEDERACY.  485 

"  a  sufficient  number  of  States  would  go  with  her  ;  but 
"  he  refused  to  answer  the  question  put  to  him  by  Dr. 
"  Rives  as  to  how  many  States  he  thought  would  be  a 
" '  sufficient  number.'  Major  Hall,  with  his  co-opera- 
^'  tion  doctrine,  met  with  cold  comfort  at  this  place,  as 
"  he  took  his  seat  without  having  received  a  single 
*^  applause." 

Another  correspondent  writing  from  Autauga,  said  : 

"  In  this  county  (Autauga)  co-operation  is,  or  has 
"  terminated  into  unionism.  Major  Boiling  Hall  stated 
"  in  his  speech  at  Milton,  '  that  he  wanted  to  make  one 
"  more  effort  to  save  this  glorious  Union.'  At  Chest- 
"  nut  Creek  the  Hall  men  had  a  flag  with  thirty-three 
"  stars,  and  one  side  in  large  letters  •  Union,'  and  they 
"  marched  in  procession  singing  a  song  with  the  chorus 
"  *  Boiling  Hall,  and  the  Union,  too'  Let  the  secession 
"  men  keep  a  lookout  for  the  Union  men.  Major  Hall 
"  did  not  tell  those  Union  men  that  he  was  in  favor  of 
^'  secession,  but  he  depicted  in  the  most  vivid  colors 
"  the  horrors  of  disunion,  the  weakness  of  Alabama, 
"  and  in  fact  everything  that  would  or  could  deter  them 
"  from  going  for  secession." 

Such  was  the  meaning  of  co-operation  with  Fitzpat- 
RiCK  and  Hall.  The  vote  of  Autauga  was  603  for 
Hall  and  626 'for  his  opponent.  Thus  only  twelve 
votes  decided  that  a  county  adjoining  the  home  of  Mr. 
Yancey  should  not  be  represented  by  a  delegate  who 
would  make  one  more  effort  to  save  the  Union. 

The  resolutions  adopted  by  primary  meetings  nomi- 
nating candidates,  also  indicate  the  character  of  co- 
operation. Luke  Pryor  and  Thos.  J.  McCleland,  dis- 
tinguished lawyers,  were  nominated  to  represent  Lime- 
stone county  in  the  State  Convention.     The  following 


486  Tfl]^  CRADLE  OF  THE  C6Nl^EDERACt. 

resolution  characterized  the  spirit  of  the  nominating 
Convention : 

"  Resolved,  That  we  favor  a  Convention  of  the  fifteen 
"  slaveholding  States,  to  consider  what  is  best  to  be 
"  done,  trusting  that  there  is  yet  a  reasonable  ground 
'  for  a  peaceable  solution  of  all  difierences  between  the 
"  North  and  the  South  inside  of  the  Union  and  the 
"  Constitution." 

TusKALoosA  county  adopted  a  similar  resolution  : 

"  Resolved,  That  we  hold  it  to  be  our  duty— ^rs^, 
'^  to  use  all  honorable  exertions  to  secure  our  rights  in  the 
« Union     =^     *." 

What  was  thought  to  be  the  tendency  of  the  Co-op- 
erationists  is  shown  by  this  extract  from  a  leading 
article  of  the  Advertiser  : 

"  But  they  do  not  attempt  at  first  to  advocate  open 
"  submission.  That  may  take  wich  a  few  real  estate 
"  speculators  in  the  town,  who  are  afraid  of  a  temporary 
"  depreciation  in  the  price  of  their  lots,  but  the  honest 
"  countryman,  who  thinks  himself  a  white  man,  and 
"  the  equal  of  any  other  white  man,  has  a  prejudice 
'^  against  negro  equality,  and  will  never  consent  to  be 
"  ruled  by  an  Abolitionist  and  a  free  negro.  No,  the 
"  friends  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  Administration  will  not  advo- 
"  cate  open  submission,  they  will  talk  about  acting  with 
"  the  entire  South,  they  will  try  to  get  Alabama  to  wait 
"  until  all  the  slave  States  are  ready  to  go  out." 

The  Northern  press  also  understood  that  the  contest 
being  waged  in  Alabama  was  like  that  of  1850,  between 
secession  on  the  one  side  and  Union  on  the  other.  The 
New  York  Times  said  : 

"  In  truth,  all  the  indications  we  are  now  receiving 
"  from  Alabama  are  to  the  effect  that  the  sentiment 


THE  t5RADtE  OP  THE  CONFEDERACY.  487 

"  favorable  to  co-operation  is  decidedly  in  the  ascend- 
"ant.  This  is  a  happy  symptom.  Co-operation 
"  means  delay — delay  involves  reflection,  conciliation, 
"  and  possible  satisfaction  ;  and  if  those  act  with  suflfi- 
"  cient  vigor  to  prevent  other  States  from  following  the 
"  lead  of  South  Carolina,  it  is  impossible,  in  the  nature 
"  of  things  commercial,  economical  and  political,  for  that 
'^  solitary  republic  to  persist  through  six  months  in  her 
"  experimental  independence.  Before  the  energies  of 
"coercion  would  be  applied,  she  would  be  an  eager 
"  suppliant  for  re-admission.  The  more  we  hear  of 
"  co-operation,  the  less  we  have  to  fear  from  disunion." 

The  editor  of  the  local  paper  describing  the  election 
in  Tallapoosa  county,  said  : 

"  The  Separate  State  Actionists  were  defeated  in  this 
"  county  on  the  24th  Dec,  by  a  decided  majority,  by 
"  the  Co-operationists.  And  since  their  victory,  some 
"  of  the  sub-Co-operationists  have  come  out  in  their  true 
"  colors.  Some  talk  about  shouldering  their  muskets 
"and  offering  their  services  to  the  General  Govern- 
"  ment,  in  coercing  South  Carolina  to  remain  in  the 
"  Union.  Others  say  they  prefer  to  live  under  Lin- 
"  coin  to  Buchanan.  Others  glory  in  the  idea  that  they 
"  have  lived  in  the  Union  all  their  lives  thus  far,  and 
"  wish  to  continue  in  it,  no  matter  who  is  President. 
"  And  we  have  heard  of  another  still,  who  exulted  on 
"  account  of  Lincoln's  election,  because,  he  said,  it 
"  would  free  all  the  negroes,  and  then  poor  white  men 
"  could  get  better  wages." 

In  the  Co-operation  party  could  be  found,  as  a  mat- 
ter of  course,  all  those  who  were  determined  to  main- 
tain the  Union  in  any  event,  and  all  those  who  were 
deterred  from  secession  through  cowardice ;  but  these 


488      THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

men  did  not  give  character  to  the  party.  The  party- 
were  primarily  in  favor  of  saving  the  Union.  All 
their  hopes  and  efforts  were  fixed  upon  that  end.  But 
they  were  also  intent  upon  presenting  a  united  South 
and  demanding  guaranties  fi-om  the  North  such  as 
would  pacify  the  apprehensions  of  the  people.  The 
conditions  or  their  equivalent  upon  which  the  Co-opera- 
tion party  were  willing  to  abide  by  the  existing  Union, 
as  specified  in  the  minority  report  of  the  Convention, 
were — 1.  A  faithfiil  execution  of  the  Fugitive.  Slave 
Law ;  2.  A  more  effective  provision  for  the  surrender 
of  criminals  escaping  from  one  State  to  another ;  3.  A 
guaranty  that  slavery  shall  not  be  abolished  in  the  Dis- 
trict of  Columbia  or  in  any  place  over  which  Congress 
has  exclusive  jurisdiction ;  4.  A  guaranty  that  the 
inter-slave  trade  shall  not  be  interfered  with;  5.  A 
protection  to  slavery  in  the  Territories  while  they  are 
Territories,  and  a  guaranty  that  they  may  be  admitted 
to  the  Union  with  or  without  slavery  as  they  may  wish  ; 
6.  The  right  of  transit  through  free  States  with  slave 
property ;  7.  The  foregoing  guaranties  to  be  irrepeal- 
able. 

It  was  provided  in  the  report  that  this  basis  of  set- 
tlement was  not  to  be  regarded  as  mandatory,  but 
simply  as  an  indication  of  the  wishes  of  the  Convention 
to  which  the  proposed  delegates  should  conform  as 
nearly  as  possible.  Evidently  the  views  of  the  Co- 
operationists  as  here  expressed  were  satisfactorily  met 
by,  and  were  probably  based  upon,  the  Crittenden 
Compromise  measures  then  pending  in  Congress. 

On  the  19th  of  December,  but  a  few  weeks  before 
the  Alabama  Convention  met,  Mr.  Crittenden  pre- 
sented to  the  U.  S.  Senate  a  series  of  resolutions  provi- 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY      489 

ding — 1.  A  restoration  of  the  Missouri  Compromise 
line  ;  2.  A  prohibition  against  the  abolition  of  slavery 
by  Congress  in  places  owned  by  the  United  States 
within  the  limits  of  slave-holding  States  ;  3.  That 
Congress  shall  not  abolish  slavery  in  the  District  of 
Columbia  without  the  consent  of  Maryland  and  of  the 
owner  of  the  slaves  ;  4.  That  Congress  shall  not  inter- 
dict the  transportation  of  slaves  from  one  slave  State 
to  another ;  5.  That  the  United  States  shall  be  respon- 
sible for  the  escape  and  loss  of  fugitive  slaves ;  6.  That 
these  provisions  shall  be  unchangeable. 

It  is  probable  that  the  adoption  of  these  resolutions 
would  have  sent  a  majority  of  anti-secessionists  to  the 
Alabama  Convention  ;  but  the  Restrictionists  appeared 
determined  to  defeat  them.  At  first  the  feeling  among 
the  politicians  at  the  North  was  for  a  settlement  upon 
the  Crittenden  Compromise.  Petitions  flowed  into 
Congress  in  unusual  numbers  from  all  parts  of  the 
North  asking  for  its  adoption.  It  was  believed  at  the 
outset  that  Mr.  Seward  was  favorable  to  it.  Senator 
PuGH,  of  Ohio,  declared  his  belief  that  it  was  approved 
by  an  overwhelming  majority  of  the  people  of  his  State 
and  of  nearly  every  other  State.  Senator  Douglas  en- 
dorsed it  in  a  most  eloquent  appeal.  Senators  Davis 
and  TooMBS,  and  indeed  all  the  Southern  Senators, 
except  IvERsoN  and  Wigfall,  believed  that  the  Com- 
promise would  be  acceptable  to  the  South,  and  were  in 
favor  of  it.  Senator  Bigler,  after  the  defeat  of  the 
Compromise  in  the  Committee  of  Thirteen,  said  : 

"  When  the  struggle  was  at  its  height  in  Georgia 
"between  Robert  Toombs  for  secession  and  A.  H.  Ste- 
"  phens  against  it,  had  these  men  in  the  Committee  of 
"  Thirteen,  who  are  now  so  blameless  in  their  own  estima- 


490      THE  CEADLE  O^  tHE  CONFEDERACY. 

"  tion,  given  us  their  votes,  or  even  three  of  them,  Ste- 
"  phens  would  have  defeated  Toombs  and  secession 
"  would  have  been  prostrated.  I  heard  Toombs  say  to 
"  Douglas  that  the  result  in  Georgia  was  staked  on  the 
"  action  of  the  Committee  of  Thirteen,  If  it  accepted 
"  the  Crittenden  proposition,  Stephens  would  defeat 
"  him ;  if  not,  he  would  carry  the  State  by  40,000  ma- 
"jority.  The  three  votes  from  the  Republican  side 
"  would  have  carried  it  at  any  time ;  but  Union  and 
"  peace  in  the  balance  against  the  Chicago  platform 
"were  sure  to  be  found  wanting." 

Mr.  Seward  gave  the  cue  for  the  defeat  of  the  Com- 
promise in  his  speech  at  New  York  on  the  22d  of  Dec. 
He  treated  the  position  of  the  South  as  simply  a  politi- 
cal threat  which  it  was  not  worth  while  to  notice. 
He  said  that,  in  his  opinion,  the  secession  of  South 
Carohna  would  not  be  followed  by  many  other  States, 
and  would  not  be  persevered  in  long.  Everything 
looked  brighter  than  on  the  6th  of  November,  and 
"  sixty  days  more  suns  will  give  you  a  much  brighter 
"  and  more  cheerful  atmosphere.' '  Forthwith  the  Re- 
publican party  professed  to  treat  the  danger  as  a  mere 
bagatelle.  The  New  York  Tribune  wished  to  know 
whether  the  party  was  "to  convict  itself  of  having 
"  either  been  a  rank  hypocrite  before  the  election  or  of 
"being  a  skulking  craven  now."  Mr.  Chase,  in  a 
letter  from  the  Peace  Congress,  avowed  the  purpose  of 
his  party  "  to  use  the  power  while  they  had  it,  and 
"  prevent  a  settlement."  "  Don't  yield  an  inch," 
became  the  cry  of  the  Republican  press. 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 


Effect  of  SewarWs  Speech — The  Vote  for  Delegates  to  the 
Secession  Convention — Meeting  of  the  Alabama  Con- 
vention— Caucus  at  Washington  —  Excitement  in  the 
Convention — Parties  Nearly  Equally  Divided — Refusal 
to  Submit  the  Or  distance  to  the  People — Yancey'' s 
Threatening  Speech — Counter  Threats^  etc,  etc. 


"  I  expressly  said  that  now  was  not  the  occasion  for  the  application  of 
any  doctrine  of  coercion  ;  but  by  some  strange  misunderstanding  I  am 
represented  as  a  determined  and  fierce  advocate  of  coercion  upon  the 
seceding  States."—  |J.  J.  Crittenden,  Senate  Jan.  23, 1861. 

•'  And  should  the  Northern  vote  (which  is  not  among  the  possibilities) 
reject  so  fair  a  compromise  [the  Crittenden  Compromise]  then  the  entire 
Middle  States,  whose  sentiments  you  so  nobly  vindicate,  would  be  am- 
ply Justified  before  the  world  and  posterity,  in  casting  their  lot  with  their 
more  Southern  brethren."— [Horatio  Seymour's  Letter  to  Crittenden. 
Jan.  18, 1861. 

The  speech  of  Mr.  Seward  was  made  Dec.  22d,  and 
the  election  for  members  of  the  Alabama  Convention  was 
held  Dec.  24th  ;  but  notwithstanding  the  hostile  attitude 
of  the  Republicans  in  repelling  all  proffers  for  an  amicable 
adjustment,  the  returns  of  the  election  showed  that  nearly, 
if  not  quite,  a  majority  of  the  people,  were  favorable  to 
continued  efforts  to  preserve  the  Union  before  resorting 
to  a  separation.  It  is  almost  impossible  to  arrive  at  a 
correct  knowledge  of  the  meaning  of  the  vote,  or  the 
relative  strength  of  the  parties.  The  separate  secession 
journal  at  the  capital  computed  the  vote  at  36,000  for 
secession  and  27,000  for  co-operation,  whereas  the 
opposition  journal  computed  it  at  24,000  for  secession 
and  33,000  for  co-operation.     The  difference  in  their 


492      THE  CRADLE  OP  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

estimates  arises  from  the  fact  that  in  certain  counties 
where  two  sets  of  candidates  were  before  the  people,  it 
was  assumed  that  one  set  was  for  separate  secession 
and  the  other  set  were  for  co-operation — whereas,  both 
sets  might  have  been  for  secession  or  both  for  co-opera- 
tion. In  some  counties  it  was  known  that  one  set  of 
candidates  was  for  co-operation  and  another  for  unquaH- 
fied  Union.  In  other  counties  it  was  known  that  votes 
cast  for  a  third  candidate  against  two  secessionists  was 
simply  an  expression  of  dislike  for  one  of  the  candi- 
dates, and  was  not  an  expression  for  co-operation.  In 
some  of  the  counties,  there  being  none  but  secession 
candidates,  a  small  vote  was  polled.  In  other  counties 
there  was  similarly  a  small  vote  polled  for  the  co-opera- 
tion candidates.  In  one  or  two  counties  which  were 
undoubtedly  opposed  to  separate  secession,  the  parties 
compromised,  as  it  was  called,  upon  prominent  citizens 
who  were  elected  without  pledges,  but  who  at  the  meet- 
ing of  the  Convention  were  found  to  be  for  immediate 
and  separate  secession,  when  they  were  supposed  by 
their  constituents  to.  be  favorable  to  another  effort  to 
preserve  the  Union.  Thus  it  was  that  the  number  of 
secessionists  or  of  co-operationists  who  were  elected  to 
the  Convention  was  not  an  accurate  index  of  the  senti- 
ment of  the  people.  Certain  it  is,  however,  that  in  this 
momentous  election  the  highest  number  of  votes 
claimed  to  have  been  polled  for  secession  candidates 
was  but  36,000  out  of  a  population  which  at  the  prece- 
ding Presidential  election  had  polled  more  than  90,000 
votes. 

The  Convention  met  and  organized  on  the  7th  of 
January,  1861,  in  the  Hall  of  the  House  of  Represen- 
tatives at  the  State  Capitol  at  Montgomery.     Of  the 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.  493 

one  hundred  delegates,  not  one  was  absent,  so  great 
was  the  anxiety  to  participate  in  the  first  action  of  the 
Convention,  and  so  great  was  the  doubt  as  to  which 
party  had  secured  the  victory.  On  Sunday  night  it 
was  believed  that  the  Co-operation  party  was  in  the 
ascendancy,  but  on  Monday,  when  the  Convention  met, 
it  was  known  that  there  were  54  members  for  secession 
and  '46  for  co-operation.  The  first  day  was  occupied 
with  debating  the  resolution  of  resistance  to  the  Lincoln 
Administration,  to  which  reference  has  already  been 
made.  While  the  co-operation  members  in  their  re- 
marks upon  Mr.  Whatley's  resolution  did  not  withdraw 
their  opinion  that  an  effort  should  be  made  to  preserve 
the  Union  by  co-operation  of  the  slave-holding  States, 
they  exhibited  an  uncertainty  of  expression  and 
a  confusion  of  purpose  which  bordered  upon  timidity. 
The  clamor  of  the  populace  was  in  their  ears.  The 
young  blood  of  the  State  was  at  fever  heat.  The 
Crittenden  Compromise  had  been  insolently  rejected  by 
an  unanimous  vote  of  the  Republicans.  Only  two  days 
before,  the  compromise  proposition  agreed  upon  by  the 
border  States  had  received  only  one  vote  in  the  Re- 
pubHcan  caucus,  and  the  door  of  reconciliation  upon 
any  plan  whereby  the  rights  of  the  South  could  be 
guaranteed,  was  closed,  it  seemed,  forever.  If  the 
united  Southern  members  of  Congress,  of  the  Peace 
Congress  and  of  the  border  States  Convention,  would 
not  be  listened  to,  was  there  any  hope  that  an  appeal 
by  a  Congress  of  co-operative  slave  States  would  meet 
with  a  better  reception  ? 

On  the  day  before  the  Alabama  Convention  met  the 
Senators  from  those  of  the  Southern  States  which  had 
called  Conventions,  met  in  caucus  in  Washington  and 


494      THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

adopted  resolutions  favoring  immediate  secession  and 
recommending  the  holding  of  a  Congress  of  all  the 
seceding  States  at  Montgomery  on  the  15th  of  Februa- 
ry. These  resolutions  were  telegraphed  to  the  Con- 
ventions of  Alabama,  Mississippi  and  Florida.  South 
Carolina  had  already  seceded,  and  her  Commissioner, 
Andrew  P.  Calhoun,  was  in  waiting  to  address  the 
Alabama  Convention.  To  confuse  the  public  tnind 
still  more,  and  to  intricate  the  plain  question  of  what 
was  best  to  be  done  for  the  interest  of  the  people  of  the 
State,  the  Governor  had  seized  Fort  Morgan  and  Fort 
Gaines  at  the  mouth  of  Mobile  Bay,  and  the  U.  S.  Arse- 
nal at  Mount  Vernon,  and  had  garrisoned  them  with 
Alabama  troops,  while  the  State  was  yet  a  member  of 
the  Union.  Thus  while  the  Co-operationists  were  ear- 
nestly desirous  and  constantly  voted  to  secure  a  plan 
by  which  disunion  might  be  averted,  they  were  met  by 
all  the  adverse  weapons  that  ever  assailed  a  patriotic 
body  of  men.  As  Southerners  they  were  entreated  to 
prevent  the  coercion  of  South  Carolina.  As  Alabam- 
ians  they  could  not  witness  their  State  authorities 
arraigned  for  treason  in  seizing  the  forts  whose  guns 
might  have  been  turned  at  any  time  against  their  lib- 
erties. As  men  they  could  not  brook  the  insolence  of 
the  RepubUcan  party,  which  contemptuously  spurned 
every  overture  towards  a  settlement. 

On  the  second  day  of  the  Convention,  Jan.  8th,  Mr. 
Calhoun  presented  his  credentials  and  delivered  an 
effective  address.  He  asked  Alabama  to  unite  with 
South  CaroUna  and  form  a  Union  of  the  Cotton  States. 
So  confident  was  he  of  the  strength  of  the  Cotton  States 
alone,  that  he  said :'"  An  Union  at  the  earliest  day 
"  between  thena,  will  guarantee  success.    We  cannot  be 


THE  CEjy)LE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.  495 

"  conquered ;  but  united  we  will  hurl  defiance  at  our 
"  assailants."  Mr.  Watts  laid  before  the  Convention  a 
telegraphic  despatch  from  Messrs.  Moore  and  Clopton, 
members  of  Congress — "  The  Republicans  in  the  House 
'*  to-day  refused  to  consider  the  border  States  Compro- 
"  mise,  compUmented  Major  Anderson,  and  pledged  to 
"  sustain  the  President,"  and  another  from  Messrs.  A. 
F.  Hopkins  and  F.  M.  Gilmer,  Commissioners  to  Vir- 
gina  :  "Legislature  passed  by  112  to  5  to  resist  any 
"  attempt  to  coerce  a  seceding  State  by  all  the  means 
"  in  her  power.  What  has  your  Convention  done  ? 
"  Go  out  promptly,  and  all  will  be  right."  The  excite- 
ment within  the  Convention  was  beginning  to  grow  as 
intense  as  that  upon  the  streets.  The  vestibule  was 
crowded  with  an  animated  mass  of  citizens,  eager  to 
hear  the  latest  bulletin  from  Washington  or  to  catch  an 
opinion  from  a  member.  The  President  laid  before  the 
Convention  a  despatch  from  Commissioner  E.  W. 
Pettus  :  "  Jackson,  Miss.,  Jan.  7. — A  resolution  has 
"  been  passed  to  raise  a  committee  of  fifteen  to  draft 
"the  ordinance  of  secession,"  and  "  The  Convention 
"  met  at  12,  Mr.  Barry  is  President.  The  State  will 
"probably  secede  to-morrow  or  next  day;"  also,  a 
despatch  from  Commissioner  E.  C.  Bullock  :  "  Con- 
"  vention  (Florida)  by  a  vote  of  162  to  5  adopted  res- 
"  olutions  in  favor  of  immediate  secession.  Committee 
"  appointed  to  prepare  ordinance  of  secession."  The 
Virginia  Commissioners  telegraphed :  "  Our  friends 
^'  here  think  the  immediate  secession  of  Alabama,  not 
"  postponed  to  any  future  time,  would  exercke  a  favor- 
"  able,  perhaps  a  controlUng  effect,  on  the  secession  of 
"Virginia."  Mr.  Watts  presented  a  despatch  from 
Pensacola :   "  Send  us  500  men  immediately  "j  and 


496      THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

another,  "  Shall  United  States  armed  vessels  be  per- 
"  mitted  to  enter  harbor  ?  If  so,  shall  they  be  fired  on 
^'  and  destroyed  ?" 

Mr.  Yancey  offered  a  resolution  that  the  Governor 
be  instructed  to  send  500  volunteers  to  the  Governor 
of  Florida,  with  a  view  to  taking  possession  of  the  forts 
at  Pensacola.  This  resolution  was  opposed  by  the  Co- 
operationists  on  the  ground  that  both  Florida  and  Ala- 
bama were  still  members  of  the  Union.  It  was  adopted 
by  a  vote  of  52  to  45. 

The  third  day  of  the  Convention,  Jan.  9th,  opened 
with  increased  and  growing  excitement.  Mr.  Davis,  of 
Madison,  offered  a  resolution  that  the  action  of  the 
Convention  should  be  submitted  to  the  people  for  rati- 
fication. It  was  rejected  by  a  strict  party  vote.'  The 
argument  of  the  minority  was  based  upon  the  small 
vote  cast  for  the  secession  delegates,  and  upon  the 
uncertain  character  of  the  election.  They  asked  how 
can  the  wishes  and  the  views  of  the  people  of  the  State 
be  clearly  and  satisfactorily  ascertained  ?  All  parties 
contend  that  the  election  of  delegates  was  not  a  satis- 
factory indication  of  the  views  of  the  people.  Even  if 
it  was  held  to  be  so,  it  would  not  absolve  them  [the 
Convention]  from  the  duty  of  submitting  their  action  to 
the  people  for  approval  or  disapproval.  That  is  the 
only  fair  and  satisfactory  mode  of  arriving  at  the  wishes 
and  the  views  of  the  people.  In  the  late  canvass  there 
was  but  little  time  afforded  for  discussion  and  investi- 
gation ;  no  plans  or  details  of  plans  were  spread  before 
the  people  ;  and  in  many  counties  the  candidates  occu- 
pied no  definite  and  clear  position.  One  man  may  have 
voted  for  one  fi:om  personal  fi^iendship  ;  another,  under 
the  impression  that  he  was  casting  his  vote  for  a  co- 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.      497 

operationist,  while  another  may  have  voted  for  the  same 
person  as  being  a  Secessionist.  But  the  submission  of 
their  action  to  a  direct  vote  of  the  people  would  leave 
no  room  to  doubt  the  drift  of  the  popular  current,  and 
would  satisfy  every  one,  both  .at  home  and  abroad, 
what  views  the  people  of  Alabama  entertain  as  to  her 
duty  at  this  time.  Such  a,  course  would  not  merely 
give  great  moral  force  to  the  position  assumed  by  the 
State,  but  it  would  powerfully  tend  to  harmonize  and 
weld  together  our  own  people.  It  will  conciliate  and 
disarm  the  minority,  to  thus  give  them  an  undoubted 
demonstration  that  they  are  in  a  minority,  and  to  have 
this  all  done  fairly  and  openly,  and  without  any  legis- 
lative jugglery  or  political  wire-drawing. 

So  much  for  the  question  of  policy.  As  to  the 
question  of  law,  the  Co-operationists  argued  that  neither, 
the  General  Assembly  nor  Gov.  Moore  had  the  right 
to  call  a  State  Convention.  The  Legislature  is  not 
supreme.  It  is  only  one  of  the  instruments  of  that 
absolute  sovereignty  which  resides  in  the  whole  body  of 
the  people.  Like  other  departments  of  the  Govern- 
ment, it  acts  under  delegated  authority  and  cannot 
rightfully  go  beyond  the  limits  assigned  to  it.  This 
delegation  of  powers  has  been  made  by  a  fundamental 
law  which  no  one  department  of  the  Government  nor 
all  the  departments  united  have  authority  to  change. 
That  can  only  be  done  by  the  people  themselves.  A 
power  was  given  to  the  Legislature  to  propose  amend- 
ments to  the  Constitution  which,  when  approved  and 
ratified  by  the  people,  become  a  part  of  the  fundamen- 
tal law.  But  no  power  was  given  to  the  Legislature  to 
call  a  Convention  for  any  purpose  whatever.  That  is  a 
measure  which  must  come  from  and  be  the  act  of  the 


498      THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

people  themselves.  Neither  the  calling  of  a  Conven- 
tion, nor  a  Convention  itself,  is  a  proceeding  under  the 
Constitution.  Instead  of  acting  under  the  forms  and 
within  the  limits  prescribed  by  that  instrument,  the 
very  business  of  a  Convention  is  to  change  those 
forms  and  boundaries  as  the  public  interests  may  seem 
to  require.  A  Couventiou  is  not  a  government  mea- 
sure, but  a  movement  of  the  people  having  for  its 
object  a  change,  either  in  whole  or  part,  of  the  existing 
form  of  government.  As  the  people  had  not  only 
omitted  to  confer  any  power  on  the  Legislature  to  call 
a  Convention,  but  had  prescribed  another  mode  of 
amending  the  organic  law,  it  was  held  by  the  Co-opei-a- 
tionists  that  the  call  for  the  Convention  was  of  no  more 
binding  force  than  if  it  had  been  made  by  a  hundred 
.private  citizens.  Nothing  done  by  it  could  be  of 
binding  effect  until  ratified  by  the  people.  It  would 
have  been  perfectly  proper  if  the  General  Assembly 
had  submitted  at  the  outset  to  the  people  the  question 
of  "  Convention  "  or  "  No  Convention."  Had  the 
people  voted  for  "  Convention,"  then  the  present  body 
would  have  been  sovereign,  and  its  acts  need  not  be 
referred  to  the  people  for  ratification.  But  as  the  people 
had  not  called  the  Convention,  it  occupied  simply  the 
position  of  an  advisory  body.  The  fact  that  a  majority 
of  the  people  voted  at  the  election  for  delegates,  did  not 
validate  the  call  made  by  the  Legislature.  In  the 
Michigan  case,  Mr.  Calhoun  had  denied  that  the  going 
to  the  polls  of  any  number  of  people  and  the  voting  for 
delegates  could  constitute  a  legitimate  Convention.  A 
majority  of  those  voting  might  be  opposed  to  a  Con- 
vention, but  at  the  same  time  solicitous  of  proper  rep- 
jesentation  should  the  Convention  be  held  legal.     The 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE   CONFEDERACY  499 

New  York  Council  of  Revision,  in  1820,  composed  of 
Justices  Kent  and  Spencer  and  Governor  Clinton,  had 
vetoed  a  bill  calling  a  State  Convention  without  sub- 
mitting to  the  people  the  question  of  expediency 
whether  the  Convention  should  be  called  or  not,  and 
from  that  day  to  the  present  it  had  been  held  most 
consonant  to  the  principles  of  free  government  that 
the  people  should  first  vote  upon  a  legislative  act 
recommending  a  Convention.  It  was  monstrous  that  a 
partisan  majority  in  the  Legislature  should  be  conceded 
the  power  to  call  a  sovereign  Convention,  designate  the 
number  of  members  and  the  districts  to  be  represented, 
and  that  such  Convention  representing  Districts  framed 
with  special  reference  to  returning  a  partisan  majority, 
should  have  unlimited  power  for  any  length  of  time  it 
might  choose  to  sit.  The  people  of  Alabama  should 
have  been  permitted  to  say  whether  they  wished  a  Con- 
vention ;  but  now  that  the  opportunity  had  passed,  they 
should  be  allowed  to  say  whether  the  acts  of  an  im- 
properly called  Convention  should  be  ratified  and  thus 
legalized.     Thus  argued  the  Co-operationists. 

To  this  it  was  replied  by  the  Secessionists  that  it 
had  been  established  by  precedents  that  in  the  silence 
of  a  Constitution  as  to  the  calling  of  a  Convention,  the 
General  Assembly  of  a  State  was  the  legitimate  author- 
ity for  the  issuance  of  such  a  call ;  that  although  the 
voting  by  the  people  of  "  Convention  "  or  "  No  Conven- 
"  tion  "  had  often  been  made  a  sine  qua  non  to'the  meet- 
ing of  a  Convention,  many  had  assembled  without  such 
condition  precedent  and  had  exercised  supreme  power, 
and  the  ordinances  adopted  by  such  Conventions  had 
been  recognized  by  all  the  Courts  as  legitimate  and 
binding.    In  the  case  of  Alabama,  a  majority  of  her 


500      THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

people  had  voted  for  delegates  to  this  Convention.  Of 
90,000  voters  more  than  60,000  had  voted  at  the 
election,  and  many  thousands  more  would  have  voted 
had  there  been  any  opposition  in  their  counties  to  the 
candidates.  Certainly  this  was  the  voice  of  the  sover- 
eign people.  As  to  submitting  the  ordinance  of  seces- 
sion to  the  people  for  ratification,  it  was  only  necessary 
to  say  that  the  Constitution  of  Alabama  under  which 
they  were  then  living  had  never  been  submitted  to  the 
people  for  ratification.  Indeed,  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States  itsell  was  never  submitted  to  the  people. 
It  was  urged  also,  especially  by  Mr.  Yancey,  that 
policy  dictated  that  there  should  be  no  delay  in  com- 
pleting the  work.  Said  he  :  "  We  have  gone  too  far  to 
"  recede  with  dignity  and  self-respect.  Such  submis- 
"  sion  involves  delay  dangerous  to  our  safety.  It 
"  could  not  well  be  effected  before  the  4th  of  March." 
The  argument  from  the  inconvenience  of  delay  decided 
the  question.  It  is  almost  needless  to  say  that  what 
was  a  matter  of  doubt  when  the  delegates  were  elected, 
was  no  longer  so  after  Mississippi,  Florida,  Louisiana, 
Georgia  and  Texas  had  followed  the  steps  of  South  Car- 
olina. The  martial  spirit  of  the  people  had  been 
aroused.  The  Republicans  had  rejected  all  overtures. 
The  fife  and  the  drum  was  being  heard  along  the  sea- 
board. The  Northern  press  was  saying  "  Let  them 
"  go  !"  Mr.  Seward  had  declared  at  New  York  that 
for  every  old  State  which  went  out  a  new  one  was 
ready  to  come  in,  as  though  all  that  wished  to  go  would 
be  cheerfully  and  peaceably  spared.  Had  the  ordi- 
nance of  secession  under  such  circumstances  been  sub- 
mitted to  the  people  of  Alabama,  there  is  little  doubt 
that  it  would  have  been  ratified  by  a  large  majority. 


THE  CRADLE  OP  THE  CON^EDiEEACY.  501 

After  the  Convention  had  voted  against  submitting 
its  action  to  the  people,  a  resolution  was  offered  by  Mr. 
Coleman,  of  Sumter,  pledging  the  power  of  Alabama  to 
aid  in  resisting  any  attempt  upon  the  part  of  the  United 
States  to  coerce  a  seceding  State.  In  behalf,  of  this 
resolution  it  was  argued  that  a  State  has  the  right  to 
secede,  and  if  in  her  sovereign  capacity  she  determines 
to  resume  her  independence,  the  other  States  which 
have  a  common  interest  in  the  protection  of  this  right, 
must  come  to  her  defence.  Mr.  Morgan,  of  Dallas, 
said  :  "  The  effect  of  the  resolution  is,  that  South  Caro- 
"  lina  may  recruit  her  armies  in  Alabama,  and  that  our 
"  treasury  shall  stand  open  to  her  demands  so  long  as 
"  she  shall  need  the  means  of  defence  and  protection." 
Mr.  Stone,  of  Pickens,  said  :  "  The  Convention  which 
"  framed  the  Constitution  expressly  refused  to  grant  to 
"  the  General  Government  the  power  to  employ  force 
"  against  a  State."  He  declared  his  belief  that  the 
passage  of  the  resolution  would  give  strength  to  the 
Southern  cause.  "  It  may  secure  peace,"  said  he,  "  if 
"  the  government  at  Washington  is  informed  that  the 
"  coercive  policy  with  which  South  Carolina  is  now 
"  threatened  will  be  resisted,  and  that  the  first  Federal 
"  gun  fired  against  Charleston  will  summon  to  the 
"  field  every  Southern  man  who  can  bear  arms.  It  may 
"  produce  a  peaceful  solution  of  the  pending  difficul- 
"ties." 

Mr.  Yancey  was  urgent  that  the  resolution  should 
pass  at  once.  It  appeared  to  him  that  anti-coercion 
was  a  doctrine  upon  which  every  Southern  man  could 
stand.  Hardly  a  prominent  law  writer  from  the  ear- 
liest days  of  the  Republic  to  within  a  few  years  past, 
but  had  denied  the  right  of  the  Federal  Government  to 


562      THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

coerce  a  State.  He  had  looked  for  opposition  at  other 
points,  but  here  he  expected  to  see  a  united  South.  To 
his  chagrin  he  found  the  co-operation  party  a  unit 
against  giving  the  pledge  he  wished  to  transmit  with 
lightning  speed  to  his  native  South  Carolina.  Mr. 
Earnest,  of  Jefferson,  said :  "  I  fully  recognize  the 
"  doctrine  that  a  sovereign  State,  acting  in  her  sover- 
"  eign  capacity,  can  withdraw  or  secede  from  the 
"  Union ;  and  that  after  that  any  acts  she  or  her  citi- 
"  zens  may  do  to  protect  her  rights  or  to  defend  her 
"  independence,  even  to  bloody  war,  is  not  and  cannot 
"  be  treason.  But  the  State  must  act  in  her  sovereign 
"  capacity ;  no  other  act  by  any  body  or  individuals 
"  can  withdraw  her  from  the  Union  or  relieve  her  citi- 
"  zens  from  the  laws  of  treason,  if  overt  acts  are  com- 
'*  mitted  by  the  citizen  or  the  State  against  the  Gen- 
"eral  Government."  Language  equally  as  explicit 
was  uttered  by  Mr.  Jones,  of  Lauderdale.  ''  Wait,  at 
''  least,"  he  said,  "  until  to-morrow,  when  it  is 
"  morally  certain  that  the  ordinance  of  secession  will  be 
"  passed,  and  the  members  of  this  Convention  ab- 
"  solved  by  the  sovereign  authority  of  Alabama  from 
"  their  allegiance  to  the  Fedeml  Government.  Until  the 
"  State  so  absolved  him  he  could  not  and  would  not 
"  vote  for  resolutions  proposing  to  declare  war  on  the 
"  Government  of  the  United  States."  Mr.  Smith,  of 
Tuskaloosa,  said  :  "  An  assurance  by  a  bare  majority 
"  of  this  Convention  of  aid  to  be  given  by  the  State  of 
"  Alabama,  would  be  considered  by  >'outh  Carolina 
"  almost  an  insult.  She  might  be  delighted  at  first  to 
"  hear  and  receive  such  an  assurance ;  but  when  she 
"  learned  the  fact  that  the  resolution  had  been  adopted 
"  by  a  bare  majority,  she  would  be  inspired  with  dis- 


ttiE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDEEACT.  503 

"  gust  ;  and  she  would  swell  with  indignation  if  it 
"  should  appear  (as  it  may  upon  a  calm  and  thorough 
**  examination,  and  a  comparison  of  the  facts  and 
"  figures)  that  the  minority  here  were  really  the  repre- 
"  sentatives  of  a  majority  of  the  sovereigns  of  this 
"State." 

The  gentleman  who  used  this  language  was  the  Hon. 
Wm.  R.  Smith,  who  had  been  a  Circuit  Judge,  and  had 
served  thi^ee  terms  as  a  Representative  in  Congress, 
having  been  elected  for  his  second  term  over  two  of 
the  most  prominent  lawyers  of  the  State  and  with  every 
newspaper  of  the  District  against  him.  He  thoroughly 
understood  the  people.  Mr.  Yancey  immediately 
leaped  to  his  feet  and  demanded  the  authority  upon 
which  Judge  Smith  had  stated  that  the  minority  of  the 
Convention  represented  a  majority  of  the  people.  "  I 
"  receive  my  information,"  was  the  reply,  "  from  tables 
"  in  the  public  prints  ;  I  do  not  assert  them  to  be  true, 
"  but  I  believe  that  a  popular  majority  of  the  State  is 
"  represented  here  by  the  minority."  Mr.  Yancey  had 
been  restive  under  the  powerful  opposition  which  met 
him  at  every  step.  He  now  lost  patience.  One  or 
the  other  party  in  this  controversy,  if  the  legitimacy  of 
the  Convention  was  to  be  brought  in  question,  must  go 
to  the  wall.  If  the  powerful  minority  in  the  Conven- 
tion believed  that  they  represented  the  majority  of  the 
people,  and  that  an  ordinance  of  secession,  passed  by  a 
Convention  which  had  not  been  called  together  by  a 
vote  of  the  people,  would  have  no  binding  effect  in  law 
or  morab,  the  result  might  be  that  two  governments 
would  be  established  in  the  State,  and  all  the  horrors 
of  civil  war  be  burst  upon  the  people.  It  was  necessary 
for  Mr.  Yancey  and  his  friends  to  boldly  and  unflinch- 


504      THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDBRAbY. 

• 

ingly  maintain  that  the  Convention  was  sovereign,  and 
that  whatever  it  did  by  the  smallest  majority  was 
supreme  law  for  all  the  people.  "  If  the  ordinance 
"  should  pass  by  the  meagre  majority  of  one,''  said  the 
impulsive  and  excited  orator,  "  it  will  represent  the 
"  fiiUness  and  the  power  and  the  majesty  of  the  sover- 
"  eign  people  of  Alabama.  When  it  shall  be  the 
"  supreme  organic  law  of  the  people  of  Alabama,  the 
"  State  upon  that  question  will  know  no  majority  or 
"  minority  among  her  people,  but  will  expect  and 
"  demand  and  secure  unlimited  and  unquestioned  obedi- 
"  ence  to  that  ordinance."  Any  one  daring  to  array 
himself  against  the  ordinance  after  its  passage,  would 
be  a  traitor  to  Alabama  ;  he  would  occupy  towards  the 
true  people  of  the  State  the  relation  which  the  Tories 
bore  to  the  Whigs  of  the  Revolution.  However  such 
men  might  be  aided  by  Abolition  forces,  he  believed 
that  they  and  their  unnatural  allies  would  be  defeated 
by  the  patriotic  citizens  of  the  State.  Thus  for  an 
hour  Mr.  Yancey  proceeded  in  a  torrent  of  invective 
against  those  who  should  doubt  the  supremacy  of  the 
proposed  ordinance  when  adopted.  His  speech  threw 
the  Convention  into  the  highest  excitement. 

Mr.  Watts,  who  saw  the  impolicy  of  the  speech  of 
his  colleague,  rose  and  expressed  his  regrets  at  its  tone 
and  apparent  temper.  This  was  no  time  for  the  exhi- 
bition of  feeling  or  for  the  utterance  of  denunciations. 
He  hoped  the  resolution  would  be  postponed,  so  that  on 
the  morrow  it  might  be  passed  by  a  unanimous  vote  of 
the  Convention.  But  Mr.  Watts  could  not  eradicate 
the  sting  of  the  preceding  speech.  Mr.  Jemison  wished 
to  know  for  whom  and  by  what  authority  Mr.  Yancey 
spoke  when  he  threatened  to  apply  to  those  who  might 


l^ttE-  CRADLE  OF  TtiE  CONFEDERACY.  S06 

oppose  the  ordinance  of  secession  the  nomenclature  of 
the  Revolution.  Nothing  that  the  minority  had  said  or 
done  justified  such  sentiments.  They  were  unprovoked 
and  uncalled  for,  and  unbecoming  any  gentleman  on 
the  floor.  Here  Mr.  Yancey  arose  and  the  President 
called  Mr.  Jemison  to  order,  whereupon  he  took  his 
seat.  There  was  great  confusion  throughout  the  hall, 
and  Mr.  Yancey  was  also  called  to  order  by  the  Presi- 
dent. When  order  was  restored,  Mr.  Jemison  continued 
by  saying  that  it  was  his  earnest  desire  to  see  good 
feeUng  and  harmony,  "  but,  sir,  when  the  great  leader 
"  of  the  majority  shall  call  the  minority  party  tories, 
*'  shall  denounce  us  as  traitors,  and  pronounce  against 
"  us  a  traitor's  doom,  were  I  to  pass  it  in  silence  the 
**  world  would  properly  consider  me  worthy  of  the 
"  denunciation  and  the  doom."  Mr.  Yancey  explained 
that  his  remarks  were  not  applicable  to  or  intended  for 
the  minority  of  this  Convention ;  they  were  intended 
for  those  in  certain  portions  of  the  State  where  it  was 
said  the  ordinance  of  secession,  if  passed,  would  be 
resisted.  Mr.  Jemison  continued — ''  I  am  glad,  Mr. 
"  President,  to  hear  the  gentleman  disclaim  any  impu- 
"  tation  of  disloyalty  to  the  minority  in  this  Convention. 
"  But  has  he  bettered  it  by  transferring  it  to  the  great 
"  popular  masses  in  certain  sections  of  the  State,  where 
"  there  is  strong  opposition  to  the  ordinance  of  s6ces- 
"  sien  and  where  it  is  said  it  will  be  resisted  ?  Will 
"  the  gentleman  go  into  those  sections  of  the  State  and 
"  hang  all  who  are  opposed  to  secession  ?  Will  he 
"  hang  them  by  families,  by  neighborhoods,  by  towns, 
"  by  counties,  by  Congressional  Districts  ?  Who,  sir, 
"  will  £!;ive  the  bloody  order  ?  Who  will  be  your  exe- 
"cutioner?     Is  this  the  spirit  of  Southern  chivalry  ? 


^06  THE  CItADLE  OF  TflE  CONFEDERACY* 

'*  Are  these  the  sentiments  of  the  boasted  champions  of 
"  Southern  rights  ?  Are  these  to  be  the  first  fruits  of 
"  a  Southern  Republic  ?  Ah !  is  this  the  bloody 
"  charity  of  a  party  who  seek  to  deliver  our  own 
"  beloved  sunny  South  from  the  galling  yoke  of  a  fanat- 
"  ical  and  puritanical  abolition  majority  ?  What  a 
'*  commentary  on  the  charity  of  party  majorities  !  The 
"  history  of  the  Reign  of  Terror  furnishes  not  a  par- 
"allel  to  the  bloody  picture  shadowed  forth  in  the 
"  remarks  of  the  gentleman.  I  envy  him  not  its  con- 
"  templation.  For  the  interests  of  our  common  coun- 
"  try  I  would  drop  the  curtain  over  the  scene,  and 
"  palsied  be  the  hand  that  ever  attempts  to  lift  it." 
Mr.  Nicholas  Davis,  of  Madison,  followed  Mr.  Jemt- 
SON.  The  father  of  Mr.  Davis  had  been  the  leader  of 
the  Whigs  of  North  Alabama  from  the  day  when  the 
State  was  admitted  to  the  Union.  Twice  had  he  been 
an  unsuccessfiil  candidate  for  Governor.  The  son 
possessed  the  father's  eloquence,  spirit  and  devotion  to 
the  Union.  He  said  :  '* .  r.  President,  I  cannot  allow 
*'  this  occasion  to  pass  without  saying  a  word  in  reply 
"  to  what  has  fallen  from  the  gentleman  from  Mont- 
"  gomery  (Mr.  Yancey.)  Under  other  circumstances, 
^'  his  remarks  might  pass  unnoticed ;  but  1  feel  I  owe 
"  it  to  those  I  represent,  at  least,  to  state  correctly  the 
"  position  they  hold  upon  the  question  so  unexpectedly 
"  brought  before  this  body.  I  claim,  sir,  to  know  their 
"  views,  and  I  say  to  this  Convention  that  they  have 
"  not  intended  to  resist  its  action  when  in  conformity 
"  to  the  wishes  of  the  people  of  the  State.  The  ques- 
"  tion  with  them,  sir,  is,  does  the  Convention  represent 
"  the  will  of  the  people  ?  If  it  does,  they  will  stand  by 
"  it,  no  matter  what  its  decision  may  be.     Now,  sir,  I 


tHE  CRADLE  OP  THE  CONFEDERACY.      50*7 

"  need  scarcely  say  that  the  act  of  this  Convention 
•^  will  not  be  conclusive  in  this  matter.  And  why  ? 
*^  Because,  as  every  one  knows,  the  popular  vote  of 
"  this  State  may  be  one  way,  the  Convention  another, 
"  and  this  resulting  from  the  manner  in  which  it  was 
"  called  by  those  who  are  guilty  of  an  usurpation  of 
"  power.  In  short,  Mr.  President,  the  sovereignty  of 
'*  this  body  is  denied,  and  its  action  will  be  sustained  or 
"  resisted  as  the  popular  will  may  be  reflected  through 
"  it..  The  gentleman  from  Montgomery  (Mr.  Yancey) 
"  asserts  upon  the  authority  of  a  newspaper  statement, 
"  the  vote  to  be  one  way  ;  the  gentleman  from  Tuska- 
'^  loosa,  (Mr.  Smith,)  upon  like  authority,  claims  it  to 
"  be  another.  I  submit,  sir,  in  deciding  a  question  of 
^'  such  moment,  that  the  proof  on  either  side  is  unsat- 
"  isfactory.  The  people  of  the  State  will  so  regard  it* 
"  We  have  the  means  in  our  hands  of  ascertaining 
"  their  will  by  submitting  our  action  for  their  ratifica- 
"  tion  or  rejection  ;  and  should  a  course  so  manifestly 
"just  be  refused,  a  committee  of  this  body,  with  the 
"  evidence  at  the  door,  can  arrive  at  a  satisfactory  con- 
"  elusion. .  In  either,  event,  I  pledge  those  I  represent 
"  to  stand  by  the  expressed  will  of  the  people.  I  repeat 
"  that  I  know  this  to  be  the  position  of  my  constituents, 
"  and  such,  so  far  as  my  knowledge  extends,  is  the 
"  position  of  the  people  in  North  Alabama."  At  this 
point  Mr.  Yancey  interrupted  Mr.  Davis  by  saying 
that  he  (Yancey)  had  said  nothing  about  the  people  of 
North  Alabama.  Mr.  Davis  continued  :  "  No,  sir,  you 
"  did  not,  but  it  is  very  well  understood  by  every 
"  member  upon  this  floor  to  whom  your  remarks  were 
"  applicable.  If  it  should  turn  out  that  the  popular 
"  vote  is  against  the  act  of  secession,  should  it  pass,  I 


508      THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

"  tell  you,  sir,  that  I  believe  it  will  and  ought  to  be 
"  l-esisted.  The  minority  of  this  State  ought  not  to 
"  control  the  majority.  But  we  are  told  that  this  is  a 
"  representative  government — not  a  pure  Democracy, 
"  and  in  this  form  minorities  may  rule.  If  our  State 
"  Government  be  representative  in  this  sense,  who 
"  made  it  so  ?  The  people,  who  in  Convention  framed 
"its  Constitution  and  organic  law.  They  set  it  on 
"  foot,  and  whilst  it  moves  in  the  orbit  which  they  pre- 
"  scribed,  I  grant  that  it  is  representative  and  has  the 
"feature  which  it  is  claimed.  Secession,  however, 
'*  destroys  that  Constitution,  and  the  people  are  muz- 
*'  zled  in  this  Convention  by  a  Legislature  which  derived 
"  its  existence  from  the  instrument  to  be  destroyed. 
"  But  I  do  not  propose  to  discuss  this  matter.  Judging 
"  from  the  speech  of  the  gentleman  from  Montgomery, 
"  this  is  not  the  mode  in  which  it  is  to  be  decided.  We 
"  are  told,  sir,  by  him,  that  resistance  to  the  action  of 
"  this  Convention  is  treason,  and  those  who  undertake 
"  it  traitors  and  rebels.  The  nomenclature  of  the  Rev- 
"  olution  is  to  be  revived,  and  the  epithet  of  Tory  in 
"  future  may  ornament  the  names  of  Alabamians.  I 
"  cannot  accept  this  as  applicable  to  my  constituents ; 
"  nor  do  I  perceive  the  fitness  or  force  of  the  intended 
"illustration.  The  Whigs  of  the  Revolution  were  the^ 
"  friends  of  this  Government,  the  Tories  its  enemies. 
"  If  names  shall  hold  the  same  relation  to  the  Goveru- 
"  ment  now  as  then,  I  shall  have  no  objection  to  the 
"  historical  reminiscence.  And  not  less  odious  in  my 
"  estimation  than  the  name  of  Tory^  is  the  doctrine 
"  which  is  claimed  of  the  right  to  coerce  an  unwilling 
"  people.  We  must  be  dealt  with  as  public  enemies. 
"But  yesterday  this  Convention  condemned  this  doc- 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.      509 

"  trine.  With  one  voice  you  declared  against  it,  and 
"  expressed  your  determination  to  meet  such  an 
"  invasion  of  your  rights  as  it  ought  to  be  met,  with 
"  arms  in  your  hands.  It  will  be  asserted  as  readily 
"  against  a  tyrant  at  home  as  abroad ;  as  readily  by 
"  the  people  of  my  section  against  usurpation  and 
"  outrage  here  as  elsewhere.  And  when  compelled  to 
"  take  this  course,  they  will  cheerfully  no  doubt  assume 
"  all  the  responsibility  that  follows  the  act.  I  seek  no 
'^  quarrel  with  the  gentleman  from  Montgomery  or  his 
"  friends.  Towards  them  personally,  I  entertain  none 
"  other  than  the  kindest  feelings.  But  I  tell  him, 
"  should  he  engage  in  that  enterprise,  that  he  will  not 
"  be  allowed  to  boast  the  character  of  an  invader.  Com- 
"  ing  at  the  head  of  any  force  he  can  muster,  aided  and 
"  assisted  by  the  Executive  of  this  State,  we»will  meet 
"  him  at  the  foot  of  our  mountains,  and  there  with  his 
''  own  selected  weapons,  hand  to  hand,  and  face  to  fe.ce, 
"  settle  the  question  of  the  sovereignty  of  the  people." 
In  the  midst  of  deep  excitement  the  Convention 
adjourned  without  taking  action  upon  the  resolution. 
With  such  evidences  of  hostility  to  the  manner  in 
which  the  Convention  was  called,  and  to  its  refusal  to 
submit  its  action  to  the  people,  what  would  happen  on 
the  morrow  ?  Would  the  minority,  claiming  to  repre- 
sent a  majority  of  the  people,  secede  from  the  Con- 
vention and  defy  the  Act  of  Secession  ?  There  were 
many  sleepless  eyes  in  Montgomery  on  the  night  of 
the  9th  of  January,  1861.  What  would  the  morrow 
bring  forth  ? 


CHAPTER  XIX. 


Adoption  of  the  Ordinance  of  Secession — Popular  Enthusi- 
asm—  Union  of  all  Classes  of  the  People — Assembling 
of  the  Southern  Congress  at  Montgomery — Arrival  of 
President  Davis — Ratification  by  the  Alabama  Con- 
vention of  the  Confederate  Constitution — Conclusion, 


"  The  effect  of  this  [Lincoln's  Proclamation  of  April  15, 1861,]  upon  th« 
public  mind  of  the  Southern  States  cannot  be  described  or  even  estima> 
ted.  *  *  Up  to  this  time  a  majoi'ity,  I  think,  of  those  who  had  favored 
the  policy  of  secession,  had  done  so  under  the  belief  and  conviction  that 
it  was  the  surest  way  of  securing  a  redress  of  grievances  and  of  bringing 
the  Federal  Government  back  to  constitutional  principles.  Many  of 
them  indulged  hopes  that  a  Re-formation  or  Re-constructlon  of  the 
Union  would  soon  take  place  upon  the  basis  of  the  new  Montgomery 
Constitution ;  and  that  the  Union  under  this  would  be  continued  and 
strengthened,  or  made  more  perfect,  as  it  had  been  in  1789  after  the  with- 
drawal of  nine  States  frora  the  first  Union,  and  the  adoption  of  the  Con- 
stitution of  1787.  This  proclamation  dispelled  all  such  hopes.  It  showed 
that  the  party  in  power  intended  nothing  short  of  complete  centraliza- 
tion. There  was  no  longer  any  divisions  amongst  the  people  of  the  Con- 
federate States.  "—[A .  H.  Stephens. 


•  On  the  morning  of  Jan.  10,  1861,  the  Alabama 
Convention  met  at  the  Capitol.  The  President  laid 
before  them  a  despatch  from  the  President  of  the 
Mississippi  Convention  announcing  that  they  had 
adopted  an  ordinance  of  secession  for  their  State  by  a 
vote  approaching  unanimity,  and  that  Mississippi 
desires  on  the  basis  of  the  old  Constitution  a  new 
Union  with  the  seceding  States.  A  despatch  from 
Charleston  was  also  read,  announcing  that  a  steamer 
with  reinforcements  for  Fort  Sumter  was  fired  into  by 
the  forts,  that  she  was  disabled,  had  retreated  and  was 
lying  at  anchor.     The  despatch  suggested,  but  did  not 


612      THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

vouch  for  the  truth  of  the  statement,  that  the  disabled 
vessel  had  hauled  down  her  colors.  Another  despatch 
said  :  "  Anderson,  it  is  said  and  believed,  intends  firing 
"upon  our  shipping  and  cutting  off  communication 
"  with  the  fort."  Another  said  :  "  Anderson  writes  to 
"  the  Governor  he  will  fire  into  all  ships.  Governor 
"  replies  and  justifies  what  we  did.  Now  Anderson 
"  replies  his  mind  is  changed,  and  refers  the  question 
"  to  Washington."  All  this  was  an  exciting  prelude  to 
the  grave  business  of  the  day. 

Mr.  Yancey  then,  from  the  Committee  of  Thirteen, 
reported  an  ordinance  of  secession  for  Alabama,  with- 
drawing "  all  the  powers  over  the  territory  of  said 
"  State,  and  over  the  people  thereof,  heretofore  delega- 
"  ted  to  the  government  of  the  United  States  of 
"  America,"  and  inviting  the  slave-holding  States  to 
meet  the  people  of  Alabama  Feb.  4,  1861,  at  the  city 
of  Montgomery,  for  the  purpose  of  consulting  with  each 
other  as  to  the  most  effectual  mode  of  securing  con- 
certed and  harmonious  action  in  whatever  measures 
may  be  deemed  most  desirable  "  for  our  common  peace 
"  and  security."  Mr.  Jere  Clemens,  fi:om  the  minority 
of  the  same  committee,  made  a  report  signed  by  six  of 
the  thirteen  members.  They  said  that  they  were 
unable  to  see  in  separate  State  secession  the  most 
effectual  mode  of  guarding  the  honor  and  securing  the 
rights  of  the  State,  but  that  it  was  becoming  to  make 
an  eflort  to  obtain  the  concurrence  of  all  the  States 
interested  before  deciding  finally  and  conclusively  upon 
a  policy  of  their  own.  They  contended  that  in  so  im- 
portant a  matter  sound  policy  dictates  that  an  ordinance 
of  secession  should  be  submitted  for  the  ratification  and 
approval  of  the  people.    The  resolutions  submitted 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.      513 

with  this  minority  report  recommended  a  Convention 
of  all  the  Southern  States. to  meet  at  Nashville  on 
the  22d  of  February,  to  consider  the  wrongs  of  the 
South  and  to  devise  appropriate  remedies.  A  basis  of 
settlement  was  suggested  by  the  resolutions,  but  not  to 
be  regarded  as  absolute  and  unalterable.  If  the  propo- 
sition for  a  conference  should  be  rejected  by  any  or  all 
of  the  States,  then  Alabama  should  adopt  such  a  plan 
of  resistance  as  might  seem  best  calculated  to  maintain 
her  honor  and  rights.  In  the  meantime  Alabama 
would  resist,  by  all  means  at  her  command,  any  attempt 
on  the  part  of  the  General  Government  to  coerce  a 
seceding  State. 

Mr.  Clemens  moved  that  the  minority  report  be  sub- 
stituted for  the  majority  report.  The  ayes  and  noes 
were  called  upon  this  motion  and  resulted — ayes  45, 
noes  54.  A  change  of  five  votes  from  the  noes  to  the 
ayes  would  perhaps  have  changed  the  fate  of  Alabama 
and  of  the  entire  South.  The  Huntsville  Advocate  had 
said  that,  "  but  for  the  unexpected  loss  of  Autauga  and 
"  Mobile  by  bad  management,  the  Co-operationists 
"  would  have  had  a  majority  in  the  Convention." 
Autauga  had  one  representative  and  Mobile  had  four. 
These  five  votes  had  it  in  their  power  to  defeat  the 
ordinance.  Autauga  was  the  home  of  Fitzpatrick, 
who  had  steadily  opposed  secession.  Mobile  was  the 
home  of  Forsyth,  who  in  his  speech  at  Hibernia  Hall, 
Charleston,  at  the  time  of  the  withdrawal  of  the  South- 
ern delegations,  had  said  that  the  proceedings  there 
would  force  him  against  his  will  to  be  a  "  Union  man ;" 
that  he  despised  Union  shrieking,  and  had  always 
thought  that  Unionism  had  gone  far  enough  when  a 
man  was  just  and  true  to  States  Rights,  but  it  was 
quite  certain  that  the  people  of  the  South  would  meet 
Mr.  Yancey's  attempt  to  "precipitate  a  revolution" 
with  a  counter  revolution  to  save  the  country — that 
there  were  twenty-five  thousand  good  citizens  in  Ala- 
bama who  had  never  been  Democrats  who  would  take 


514      THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

a  hand  to  help  prevent  a  dissolution  of  the  Union. 
Writing  to  the  journal  of  which  he  was  then  editor,  Mr. 
Forsyth  had  also  said :  "  The  Democratic  party  has 
"  now  a  double  sectional  fight  in  hand  North  and 
"South.  The  Union  depends  on  the  issue.  Heaven 
"  defend  the  right."  Mobile  county  had  voted  in  No- 
vember previous  for  Mr.  Bell,  1,629  votes;  for  Mr. 
Douglas,  1,828  votes ;  and  for  Mr.  Breckinridge, 
only  1,541  votes.  There  were  3,452  votes  cast  for 
Union  candidates  against  ],541  for  the  candidate  sup- 
ported by  Mr.  Yancey.  From  these  and  other  facts,  it 
was  believed  by  many  that  the  minority  report  would 
have  been  ratified  in  preference  to  Mr.  Yancey's  ordi- 
nance of  secession,  had  the  Convention  actually  repre- 
sented the  voice  of  the  people. 

After  the  refusal  of  the  Convention  to  substitute  the 
minority  for  the  majority  report,  Mr.  Clemens  offered 
a  resolution  providing  that  the  ordinance  of  secession 
should  not  go  into  operation  unless  ratified  by  the 
people.  The  vote  being  taken  on  this  proposition,  it 
was  rejected  by  the  same  vote  which  rejected  the  mi- 
nority report.  Mr.  Yancey  then  moved  the  adoption 
of  the  ordinance  of  secession.  The  Convention  ad- 
journed until  next  day,  the  11th,  and  then  occurred 
one  of  the  most  interesting  and  painful  scenes  ever  wit- 
nessed by  a  deliberative  body  sitting  upon  measures 
involving  the  life  or  death  of  States.  The  members  of 
the  minority,  before  casting  their  votes,  protested 
against  the  act  about  to  be  committed,  and  each  in 
turn  raised  his  warning  voice. 

Mr.  Clarke,  of  Lawrence,  said :  "  I  will  not  state 
''  what  might  produce  disruption  of  the  Union ;  but, 
''  sir,  I  see  as  plainly  as  I  see  the  sun  in  Heaven,  what 
"  that  disruption  itself  must  produce.  I  see  it  must 
''  produce  war,  and  such  a  war  I  will  not  describe  in  its 
''  two-fold  character.  Once  more,  therefore,  in  the 
"  name  of  Liberty,  of  Peace,  of  happy  hours  -  of  the 
"  aged,  of  the  poor,  of  our  mothers,  of  our  sisters — of 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.      515 

"  helpless  humanity  throughout  the  borders  of  our 
"  State,  I  implore  you  to  concede  something  to  the 
"  counties  of  North  Alabama."  Mr.  Posey,  of  Lauder- 
dale, said :  "  Division  at  home  would  be  ^worse  than 
"  secession  ;  this  is  the  opinion  of  the  minority  on  this 
"  floor  upon  mature  reflection."  Mr.  Jones,  of  Lauder- 
dale, said :  "  This  had  been  the  most  solemn  hour  of 
"  his  hfe ;  he  expected  to  feel  no  more  solemn  when  he 
"  should  stand  in  the  presence  of  the  King  of  Terrors." 
Mr.  Smith,  of  Tuskaloosa,  said  :  "  My  opposition  to  the 
"  ordinance  of  secession  will  be  sufficiently  indicated  by 
^'  my  vote ;  that  vote  will  be  recorded  in  the  book ; 
"  and  the  day  is  not  yet  come  that  is  to  decide  on 
"  which  part  of  the  page  of  that  book  will  be  written 
"  the  glory  or  the  shame  of  this  day."  Mr.  Kimball, 
of  Tallapoosa,  said  :  "  In  all  my  intercourse  with  my 
"  fellow-citizens,  I  found  none  who  did  not  cordially 
"  desire  a  united  South  :  not  a  dissenting  voice.  In  the 
"  Advertiser  of  this  morning  I  find  a  despatch  express- 
"  ing  the  opinion  of  Gen.  Scott,  who  is  said  to  be  the 
"  great  war-spirit,  who  unhesitatingly  says,  that  with  a 
'-'  certain  unanimity  of  the  Southern  States,  it  would  be 
"  impolitic  and  improper  to  attempt  coercion." 

Mr.  Davis,  of  Madison,  said  :  "  It  cannot  be  denied 
"  that  circumstances  have  greatly  changed  since  this 
"  Convention  met  on  last  Monday.  We  have  seen 
"  State  after  State,  in  the  exercise  of  its  sovereign 
"  powers,  withdrawing  fi^om  the  Union  in  the  past  few 
"  days.  Florida  has  seceded ;  Mississippi  has  seceded 
"  —each  by  overwhelming  majorities.  It  is  now  no 
"  longer  a  serious  apprehension  that  Alabama  will  stand 
"  alone  in  this  movement  of  secession.  It  is  confidently 
"  asserted  that  Georgia  and  Louisiana  and  Texas  will 
"  follow.  Under  this  aspect  of  the  case,  it  is  not  re- 
"  markable  that  a  great  change  has  come  over  the  Con- 
'*  vention — a  change  clearly  indicated  by  the  speeches 
"  that  have  been  this  day  delivered  in  this  hall.  I 
"  shall  vote  against  the  ordinance.    But  if  Alabama 


516      THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

"  shall  need  the  strong  arm  of  her  valorous  sons  to 
"  sustain  her  in  any  emergency  which,  on  account  of 
"  this  ordinance  of  secession,  may  arise  within  her 
"  borders,  by  which  her  honor  or  the  rights  of  her  citi- 
"  zens  are  likely  to  be  endangered,  I  say  for  myself 
*'and  for  my  constituents — and  I  dare  say  for  all 
"  North  Alabama — that  I  and  they  will  be  cheerfully 
"  ready  to  take  our  part  in  the  conflict.  We  may  not 
"  endorse  the  wisdom  of  your  resolves,  but  we  will 
"  stand  by  the  State  of  Alabama  under  all  circum- 
"  stances." 

Mr.  Clemens,  of  Madison,  said  :  "  For  the  present  it 
"  is  enough  to  say  that  I  am  a  son  of  Alabama  ;  her 
"  destiny  is  mine  ;  her  people  are  mine ;  her  enemies 
"are  mine.  I  see  plainly  enough  that  clouds  and 
"  storms  are  gathering  above  us  ;  but  when  the  thunder 
"  rolls  and  lightning  flashes,  I  trust  that  I  shall  neither 
"  shrink  nor  cower — neither  murmur  nor  complain. 
"  Acting  upon  the  convictions  of  a  life-time,  calmly 
"  and  deliberately  I  walk  with  you  into  revolution.  Be 
"  its  perils,  be  its  privations,  be  its  suflerings  what  they 
"  may,  I  share  them  with  you,  although  as  a  member 
"  of  this  Convention  I  opposed  your  ordinance.  Side 
"'  by  side  with  yours,  Mr.  President,  my  name  shall 
"  stand  upon  the  original  roll ;  and  side  by  side  with 
"  you  I  brave  the  consequences." 

Mr.  Yancey  closed  the  debate  with  the  following 
remarks : 

"  Mr.  President— If  no  other  gentleman  desires  to 
"  address  the  Convention,  I  will  exercise  the  usual  par- 
"  liamentary  privilege  accorded  to  the  Chairman  of  a 
"  committee  reporting  a  measure — that  of  closing  the 
"  debate,  by  assigning  a  few  reasons  why  the  measure 
"  before  you  should  be  adopted.  In  common  with  all 
"  others  here,  I  feel  that  this  is  a  solemn  hour,  and  I 
"  congratulate  the  Convention  that  the  spirit  that  pre- 
"  vails  is  both  fraternal  and  patriotic — that  whatever  of 
<' irritation  or  suspicion  had  prevailed  in  the  earlier 


tHE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.      617 

**  hours  of  our  session,  has  been,  in  a  great  degree, 
"  dissipated,  and  has  given  way  to  a  juster  appreciation 
"  of  the  motives  and  the  conduct  of  each  other.  In 
"  the  committee  the  majority  yielded  to  the  minority 
"  all  the  time  that  they  desired  for  deliberation  ;  and 
"  since  the  report  has  been  made,  the  majority  in  the 
"  Convention  has  also  yielded  to  the  wishes  of  the  mi- 
'*  nority  in  this  respect,  and  every  delegate  who  desired 
"  to  do  so,  has  addressed  the  Convention  in  explanation 
"  of  his  vote,  and  has  taken  as  much  time  as,  in  his 
"judgment,  was  necessary  to  his  purpose.  If,  in 
"  the  earlier  stages  of  our  proceedings,  it  has  been 
"  thought,  as  it  has  been  said  by  some  gentlemen,  that 
"  an  undue  celerity  of  movement  was  pressed  by  the 
"  majority,  I  beg  those  gentlemen  to  believe  that  this 
"  conduct  on  our  part  was  dictated  solely  by  our  con- 
"  victions  of  duty,  and  not  from  any — the  least — desire 
"  to  precipitate  others  into  a  vote  before  they  were  pre- 
"  pared  to  give  it  understandingly.  Time  was  deemed 
"  by  the  friends  of  independent  State  action  to  be  either 
"  success  or  defeat  in  the  inauguration  of  this  great 
"  movement — success  if  there  was  a  prompt  and  une- 
"quivocal  withdrawal  from  the  Union — or,  defeat,  if 
"  time  was  used  to  delay  and  to  dishearten.  You  who 
"  were  opposed  to  such  action  from  a  sense  of  duty, 
^*  would  necessarily  be  for  all  such  delays  as  would  aid 
"  in  accomphshing  its  defeat ;  we  who  were  for  it,  from 
"  a  like  sense  of  duty,  were  necessarily  in  favor  of  a 
'^  prompt  decision  of  the  question,  iiiach  has  acted, 
*'  doubtless,  upon  well-founded  ideas  of  duty.  All  that 
"  was  necessary  to  a  better  understanding  of  each  other, 
''  was  a  belief  in  that  fact,  a  belief  in  the  good  faith  of 
*'  each  other ;  and  I  rejoice  that  to-day  has  furnished 
"  ample  evidence  that  we  now  mutually  entertain  that 
'^  belief ;  and,  on  the  part  of  the  majority,  I  return 
'*  thanks  to  the  venerable  delegate  from  Lauderdale, 
'^  (Mr.  Posey,)  who,  though  compelled  to  vote  against 
^'  this  ordinance,  yet  has  characterized  the  conduct  of 


518  THE  CRADLiE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

"  the  majority  in  this  matter  as  giving  evidence  of 
"  ^  wisdom,  discretion,  and  a  spirit  of  conciliation.' 

"  As  to  the  measure  itself  (the  ordinance  and  reso- 
"  lutions),  whatever  merit  it  possesses,  is  the  result  of 
""  consultation  between  the  majority  and  minority  of  the 
"  committee.  I  am  sure  that  the  members  of  that  com- 
"  mittee  will  indulge  me  in  alluding  to  what  passed  in 
"its  sessions.  The  majority  decidedly  preferred  to 
"  adopt  a  simple  ordinance  of  secession,  but  determined, 
"  for  the  sake  of  harmony,  to  do  all  in  their  power  to 
"  disarm  prejudice  and  to  bring  about  a  fraternal  feel- 
"  ing ;  they  did  not  hesitate  to  yield  their  own  cher- 
"  ished  desire  in  this  particular,  when  my  friend  from 
v"  Madison  (Mr.  Clemens)  proposed  to  amend  our  pro- 
"  posed  ordinance  by  adding  thereto  the  preamble  and 
"  resolutions,  which  form  a  part  of  his  report.  It  is 
"  well  known  that  some  of  the  people  have  been  led  to 
'^  believe  that  the  friends  of  secession  desired  to  erect 
"  Alabama  either  into  a  monarchy  or  into  an  inde- 
"  pendent  8tate,  repudiating  an  alliance  with  other 
"States.  As  for  myself,  I  can  truly  declare  that  I 
"  have  never  met  with  any  friend  of  secession  enter- 
"taining  such  views.  The  proposition  submitted  by 
"  my  friend  from  Madison  (Mr.  Clemens),  being  in 
"  perfect  accordance  with  the  wishes  and  desires  of  the 
"  majority,  and  amply  refiited  these  misconceptions, 
"  the  one  which  we  would  have  preferred  to  have  voted 
'^  upon  separately,  was  at  once  agi'eed  to,  and  the  result 
"  is  the  measure  now  before  us  for  consideration. 

"  On  the  first  day  of  our  session  a  resolution  was 
"  unanimously  adopted  declaring  that  the  people  of  the 
"  State  would  resist  the  Administration  of  Lincoln  for 
"  the  causes  and  upon  the  principles  there  enunciated. 
*'  On  the  question  of  resistance,  then,  there  is  no  differ- 
"  ence  in  this  body.  All  are  for  resistance ;  but  there  is 
*'a  difference  between  members  as  to  the  mode,  the 
"  manner  of  resistance.  Some  believe  that  when  the 
"  rights  of  our  people  are  denied  or  assailed  by  the  par- 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.      619 

"  ties  to  the  Federal  compact,  or  by  the  Government, 
"  that  secession  from  this  compact  is  the  rightful  reme- 
"  dy.  Others  believe  that  secession  is  wrong,  and  that. 
"  the  remedy  is  revolution.  A  carefiil  reading  of  the 
'*  ordinance  on  your  table  will  show  that  the  resistance 
"  therein  provided  may  be  called  revolution,  disunion, 
"  or  secession,  as  each  member  may  desire.  The  cap- 
"  tion  styles  it  '  An  Ordinance  to  dissolve  the  Union,' 
"  etc.  In  the  body  of  the  ordinance  the  people  of 
"  the  State  are  '  withdrawn  from  the  compact,'  etc.  It 
'^  is  true  that  the  mode  of  resistance  is  organic  ;  it  is 
"  an  organic  co-operation,  not  of  States,  but  of  the 
'*  people  of  this  State  in  resistance  to  wrong.  In  this 
"  respect  it  harmonizes  differences.  Another  dififer- 
"  ence,  both  in  the  popular  mind  and  in  that  of  dele- 
"  gates,  is,  that  resistance  should  be  by  co-operation  of 
''  States,  and  not  by  independent  State  action.  That 
"  difference  has  been  harmonized  by  the  conjunction 
"  of  the  ordinance  and  resolutions,  as  reported  by  the 
"  committee.  Co-operation  and  separate  State  action, 
"  as  far  as  they  can  be  effected  under  our  obligation  to 
"  the  Federal  compact  and  in  harmony  with  the  princi- 
"  pies  of  State  sovereignty,  have  been  joined  in  this 
"  measure.  It  is  true  there  are  a  class  of  Co-opera- 
"  tionists  whose  views  are  not  met  by  this  measure ; 
"  those  who  have  advocated  co-operation  to  secure  sub- 
"  mission— to  defeat  resistance.  But  there  are  none  of 
"  that  character  here.  While  the  friends  of  indepen- 
"  dent  State  action  in  this  ordinance  do  obtain  a  declara- 
"  tion  as  to  the  rights  of  the  people  of  Alabama  ;  and 
"as  to  our  determination  to  sustain  them,  the  friends 
'"  of  co-operation,  for  the  purpose  of  effectual  resistance, 
'•  also  obtain  a  declaration  of  our  desire  and  purpose  to 
**  unite  with  all  of  the  slaveholding  States  who  enter- 
"  tain  a  like  purpose,  in  confederated  or  co-operative 
"  resistance,  and  in  a  confederate  government  upon  the 
"  principles  of  the  Federal  Constitution. 

"  As  far  as  it  was  possible,  then,  to  do  so  without 


520  TflE  OKADLE  OF  THE  CONPEDERAOt^. 

"  yielding  principles,  the  friends  of  resistance  have  used 
"  every  reasonable  effort  to  meet  on  a  common  ground. 
"  And  I  rejoice  in  the  belief  that  the  effort  has  been 
"  successful,  and  that  there  will  be  a  far  greater  una- 
"  nimity  manifested  when  the  vote  shall  be  taken  on 
"  this  measure,  than  was  even  hoped  for  when  we  first 
"  met  in  this  hall.  From  the  remarks  of  gentlemen  to- 
"  day,  many  will  be  compelled  to  vote  against  this 
"  measure  by  reason  of  restrictions  of  their  people,  who 
"  otherwise  would  vote  for  it.  I  sincerely  respect  these 
"motives,  and  think  those  occupying  such  positions 
"  act  correctly  in  their  premises. 

"  Mr.  President,  we  are  fortunate  in  having  the 
"  example  of  our  Revolutionary  fathers  sustaining  the 
"  plan  of  action  here  proposed — separate  State  action 
"  and  then  co-operation  in  confederating  together. 
"  South  Carolina,  after  several  months  deliberation, 
"  with  a  view  of  resisting  British  aggression,  formed  a 
"  State  government  early  in  the  year  1776.  Virginia 
"  did  so  in  June,  1776,  declaring  her  separate  and  inde- 
"  pendent  secession  from  the  Government  of  Great 
"  Britain. .  Afterwards,  on  the  4th  of  July,  1776,  the 
"  Congress  of  the  United  States  agreed  upon  and 
"  adopted  a  joint  Declaration  of  Independence.  It  was 
"  after  the  colonies  had  acted  separately  and  indepen- 
"  dently,  that  both  the  Declaration  of  Independence 
"  and  the  Articles  of  Confederation  and  the  Constitu- 
"tion  of  the  United  States  were  severally  adopted. 
"  The  friends  of  independent  State  action  have  also 
"  cause  to  congratulate  themselves,  that  as  far  as  the 
"  people  of  the  Southern  States  have  spoken,  they  have 
"  unanimously  expressed  themselves  in  favor  of  inde- 
"  pendent  State  action. 

"  South  Carolina,  Mississippi  and  Florida  have  each 
<^  already  acted  independently.  In  this  Convention  a 
''  majority  are  known  to  be  in  favor  of  that  kind  of 
^'  action.  We  have  already  received  information  that 
"  a  majority  of  delegates  in  favor  of  such  action  has 


•TtiE  CRADLE  OF  THE   CONiPEDERACY  521 

"  been  elected,  both  in  Georgia  and  Louisiana.  I  com- 
"  mend  this  significant  fact  to  all  who  feel  disposed  to 
"  condemn  an  independent  State  movement. 

"  Some  have  been  disposed  to  think  that  this  is  a 
"  movement  of  politicians,  and  not  of  the  people.  This 
"  is  a  great  error.  Who,  on  a  calm  review  of  the  past, 
"  and  reflection  upon  what  is  daily  occurring,  can  rea- 
"  sonably  suppose  that  the  people  of  South  CaroUna, 
"  Georgia,  Florida,  Alabama,  Mississippi  and  Louisiana, 
"who  have  already  elected  Conventions  favorable  to 
"  dissolution,  and  the  people  of  Arkansas,  Tennessee, 
"  North  Carolina  and  Virginia,  who  are  contemplating 
"  an  assembling  in  their  several  Conventions,  have  been 
"  mere  puppets  in  the  hands  of  politicians  ?  Who  can 
"for  a  moment  thus  deliberately  determine  that  all 
"'these  people  in  these  various  States,  who  are  so 
"  attached  to  their  government,  have  so  little  intelli- 
"  gence  that  they  can  be  thus  blindly  driven  into  revo- 
"  lution,  without  cause,  by  designing  and  evil-minded 
"  men  against  the  remonstrances  of  conservative  men  ? 
"  No,  sir ;  this  is  a  great  popular  movement,  based 
"  upon  a  wide-spread,  deep-seated  conviction  that  the 
"  forms  of  government  have  fallen  into  the  hands  of  a 
"  sectional  majority,  determined  to  use  them  for  the 
"  destruction  of  the  rights  of  the  people  of  the  South. 
"  This  mighty  flood-tide  has  been  flowing  from  the 
"  popular  heart  for  years.  You,  gentlemen  of  the 
"  minority,  have  not  been  able  to  repress  it ;  we  of  the 
"  majority  have  not  been  able  to  add  a  particle  to  its 
"-  momentum.  We  are  each  and  all  driven  forward 
"  upon  this  irresistible  tide.  The  rod  that  has  smitten 
''  the  rock  from  which  this  flood  flows,  has  not  been  in 
''  Southern  hands.  The  rod  has  been  Northern  and 
''  sectional  aggression  and  wrong,  and  that  flood-tide 
*'  has  grown  stronger  and  stronger  as  days  and  years 
"  have  passed  away,  in  proportion  as  the  people  have 
"  lost  all  hope  of  a  constitutional  and  satisfactory 
"  solution  of  these  vexed  questions.     In  this  connec- 


522      THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

"  tion  I  would  say  a  few  words  upon  the  proposition  to 
"  submit  the  ordinance  of  dissolution  to  a  popular  vote. 
"  This  proposition  is  based  upon  the  idea  that  there  is  a 
"  difference  between  the  people  and  .the  delegate.  It 
"  seems  to  me  that  this  is  an  error.  There  is  a  differ- 
"  ence  between  the  representatives  of  the  people  in  the 
"  law-making  body  and  the  people  themselves,  because 
'*  there  are  powers  reserved  to  the  people  by  the  Cou- 
"  vention  of  Alabama,  and  which  the  General  Assembly 
"  cannot  exercise.  But  in  this  body  is  all  power — no 
"  powers  are  reserved^  from  it.  The  people  are  here  in 
"the  persons  of  their  deputies.  Life,  Liberty  and 
"  Property  are  in  our  hands.  Look  to  the  ordinances 
*'  adopting  the  Constitution  of  Alabama.  It  states  '  we, 
"  the  people  of  Alabama,'  etc.,  etc.  All  our  acts  are 
"  supreme,  without  ratification,  because  they  are  the 
"  acts  of  the  people  acting  in  their  sovereign  capacity. 
"  As  a  policy,  submission  of  this  ordinance  to  a  popular 
"  vote  is  wrong.  In  the  first  place,  we  have  gone  too 
"  far  to  recede  with  dignity  and  self-respect.  It  could 
"  not  well  be  effected  before  the  4th  of  March.  The 
"  policy  is  at  war  with  our  system  of  gov(^nment. 
"  Ours  is  not  a  pure  Democracy — that  is,  a  govern- 
"  ment  by  the  people ;  though  it  is  a  government  of 
"'the  people.  Ours  is  a  representative  government, 
"  and  whatever  is  done  bj  the  representative  in  accord- 
"  a  nee  with  the  Constitution  is  law ;  and  whatever  is 
"  done  by  the  deputy  in  organizing  government,  is  the 
"  people's  will. 

"  The  policy,  too,  is  one  of  recent  suggestion  ;  if  I 
"  am  not  mistaken,  it  was  nevei;  proposed  and  Sicied 
"  upon  previous  to  1837.  Certainly  the  Fathers  did 
"  not  approve  it.  The  Constitutions  of  the  original 
"  Thirteen  States  were  adopted  by  Conventions,  and 
"  were  never  referred  to  the  people. 

"  The  Constitution  of  the  IJnited  States  was  adopted 
"  by  the  several  State  Conventions,  and  in  no  instance 
"  was  it  submitted  to  the  people  for  ratification.    Coming 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.      523 

**  down  to  a  later  day,  and  coming  home  to  the  action 

"of  our  State  sires,  we  find  another  example  against 

"  such  submission.     The  Constitution  of  the  State  of 

"  Alabama  was  never  submitted  for  popular  ratification. 

"  One  other  and  most  important  consideration  is,  that 

"  looking  to  the  condition  of  the  popular  mind  of  the 

"  minority  of  the  people  on  this  question,  such  a  course 

"  will  but  tend  to  keep  up  strife  and  contention  among 

*'  ourselves.     Such  a  submission,  it  is  clear  to  my  mind, 

'•  will  but  result  in  a  triumph  of  the  firiends  of  secession 

"  — and  an  additional  amount  of  irritation  and  preju- 

*'  dice  be  thus  engendered  in  the  minds  of  the  defeated 

"  party.     Some  gentlemen  seem  to  think  that  in  dis- 

"  solving  the  Union  we  hazard  the  '  rich  inheritance  ' 

"bequeathed  to  us.     For  one,  I  make  a  distinction 

"  between  our  liberties  and  the  powers  which  have  been 

"  delegated  i;o  secure  them.     Those  liberties  have  never 

"  been  alienated — are  inalienable.     The  State  Govern- 

"  ments  were  formed  to  secure  and  protect  them.     The 

"  Federal  Government  was  made  the  common  agent  of 

"  the  States  for  the  purpose  of  securing  them  in  our 

"  intercourse  with  each  other  and  the  foreign  powers. 

"  The  course  we  are  about  to  adopt  makes  no  war  on 

"  our  liberties — nor,  indeed,  upon  our  institutions  —nor 

"  upon  the  Federal  Constitution.     It  is  but  a  dismissal 

"  of  the  agent  that  first  abuses  our  institutions  with  a 

'*  view  to  destroy  our  rights,  and  then  turns  the  very 

"  powers  we  delegated  to  him  for  our  protection  against 

"  us  for  our  injury.     These  powers  were  originally  pos- 

"sessed  by  the  people  of  the  sovereign  States,  and 

"  when  the  common  agent  abuses  them,  it  seems  to  me 

"  but  the  dictate  of  common  sense,  as  well  as  an  act  of 

"  self-preservation,  that    the    States  should   withdraw 

"  and  resume  them.     The  ordinance  withdraws  those 

"  once  delegated  by  Alabama,  and  the  resolutions  ac- 

"  company ing  it  propose  to  meet  our  sister  States  in 

"  Convention  and  to  confederate  with  them  on  the  basis 

"  of  the  very  constitution  which  was  the  bond  of  com- 


624  TflE  CRADLB  OF  THE  CONFEDERACIT. 

"  pact  and  union  between  Alabama  and  the  other  States 
"  of  the  Union.  We  propose  to  do  as  the  Israelites  did 
"of  old,  under  Divine  direction  to  withdraw  our  people 
"  from  under  the  power  that  oppresses  them,  and,  in 
''  doing  so,  like  them,  to  take  with  us  the  Ark  of  the 
"Covenant  of  our  liberties. 

"  There  is  but  one  more  point  upon  which  I  desire  to 
"  say  a  few  words.  My  venerable  friend  from  Lauder- 
"dale  asked  us  to  forbear  pressing  the  minority  to 
"  sign  the  ordinance.  In  my  opinion  it  is  not  a  neces- 
"  sity  that  it  be  signed  by  members.  Its  signature 
"does  not  necessanly  express  approval  of  the  act. 
"  Signing  it  is  but  an  act  of  attestation,  in  one  sense,  as 
"  when  the  President  of  the  Senate  signs  an  act  of  the 
"  General  Assembly  which  he  has  voted  against.  I  am 
"  willing  to  vote  for  all  reasonable  delay  to  enable 
"  members  to  consult  their  constituents.  But  I  beseech 
"  gentlemen  to  bear  in  mind  that  when  the  ordinance  is 
"  signed,  the  absence  of  the  signature  of  any  members 
"  will  be  a  notice  to  our  enemies  that  we  are  divided  as 
"  a  people,  and  that  there  are  those  in  our  midst  who 
"  will  not  support  the  State  in  its  hour  of  peril.  The 
"  signature  of  the  ordinance,  while  waiving  no  vote 
"  given  against  it,  while  giving  up  no  opinion,  is  an 
"  evidence  of  the  highest  character  that  the  signer  will 
"  support  his  country. 

"  It  will  give  dignity,  strength,  unity  to  the  State  in 
"  which  we  live,  and  by  which  each  of  its  citizens  should 
"  be  wiUing  to  die  if  its  exigencies  demand  it.  I  now 
"  ask  that  the  vote  may  be  taken." 

The  question  being  upon  the  adoption  of  the  ordi- 
nance, the  vote  was  taken  by  ayes  and  noes,  and 
resulted — ayes  61,  noes  39.  Seven  of  the  minority 
party  had  gone  over  to  the  majority  under  the  lead  of 
Mr.  Clemens.  Mr.  President  Brooks  announced  the 
result  of  the  vote,  and  declared  that  Alabama  was  a 
free,   sovereign,  and  independent  State.     The   obliga- 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.      525 

tion  of  secrecy  was  removed  at  once  from  the  proceed- 
ings of  the  Convention  and  the  doors  thrown  open. 

The  vast  multitude  which  had  assembled  in  and 
about  the  Capitol,  thronging  the  corridors  and  vestibule 
in  anxious  expectation  of  the  news,  as  soon  as  the  doors 
were  opened,  burst  into  the  lobbies  in  a  fever  of  excite- 
ment and  enthusiasm.  The  Senate  Chamber,  within 
hearing  of  the  Convention  Hall,  had  been  thronged  with 
citizens  from  an  early  hour,  who  had  hstened  to 
speeches  from  distinguished  men,  and  whose  rapturous 
applause  had  constantly  reached  the  ears  of  the  Con- 
vention. Now  the  rush  to  the  lobbies,  to  the  galleries, 
and  to  the  floor  of  the  Convention  Chamber,  resembled 
the  rush  of  a  mountain  torrent.  In  an  instant  salvos 
of  artillery  heralded  the  event,  and  banners  were  dis- 
played in  all  parts  of  the  little  city.  As  if  by  magic, 
an  immense  flag  of  Alabama  was  thrown  across  the 
hall,  and  was  greeted  with  cheer  upon  cheer  until  the 
rafters  fairly  rang  with  the  applause.  Mr.  Yancey  pre- 
sented the  flag  in  the  name  of  the  ladies  of  Alabama, 
and  paid  a  splendid  tribute  to  the  ardor  of  female  pat- 
riotism. It  was  accepted  by  Mr.  Alpheus  Baker  in 
one  of  those  glowing  speeches  for  which  he  was  so 
famous,  in  which  the  word-painting  was  so  briUiant  and 
electric  as  to  carry  captive  every  heart. 

Throughout  the  day  the  roar  of  peaceful  guns  con- 
tinued ;  more  flags  leaped  every  moment  to  the  wind, 
until  the  air  was  heavy  with  the  vast  expanse  of  gor- 
geous bunting.  Speeches  of  congratulation  were  being 
made  by  eloquent  orators  to  the  wild  populace ;  and 
everywhere  was  seen  an  enthusiasm  such  as  perhaps 
never  before  in  the  annals  of  the  world  greeted  the 
birth  of  a  new  government. 

On  the  16th  of  January  the  report  of  the  special 
committee  of  thirteen  upon  the  formation  of  a  provis- 
ional and  permanent  government  between  the  seceding 
States,  was  taken  up  by  the  Convention  on  motion  of 
Mr.  Yancey.     The  report  favored  the  formation  of  con- 


526      THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

federate  relations  with  such  of  the  Southern  States  as 
might  desire  it,  upon  the  basis  of  the  Constitution  of 
the  United  States.  It  advised  the  election  of  delegates 
to  the  Provisional  Congress  called  to  meet  at  Mont- 
gomery, Feb.  4.  The  opponents  of  secession  'took  the 
ground  that  a  new  Convention  should  be  called  to  pass 
upon  the  formation  of  a  permanent  government.  There 
still  hngered  a  hope  that  while  Alabama  was  untram- 
meled  by  a  new  alliance,  she  was  in  a  better  condition 
to  renew  at  any  moment  her  connection  with  the 
United  States.  Mr.  Yancey  said  that  "  the  proposition 
"  has  a  tendency  to  reopen  the  question  of  secession, 
"  by  bringing  up  the  issue  of  a  reconstruction  of  the 
'^  Federal  Government ;  it  allows  such  an  issue  to  be 
"  made  ;  it  invites  it,  in  fact."  Said  he  :  "From  the 
^*  signs  of  the  times  it  would  seem  that  coercive  mea- 
"  sures  were  to  be  adopted.  If  so,  about  the  time  of 
"  such  an  election  the  people  will  be  bearing  the 
"  burthens  of  such  a  contest.  Commercial  and  agricul- 
"  tural  interests  will  be  suffering.  Debts  will  be  hard 
"  to  pay.  Provisions  will  be  scarce.  Perhaps  death 
"  at  the  hands  of  the  enemy  will  have  come  to  the 
'^  doors  of  many  families.  Men's  minds  thus  sur- 
"  rounded  and  affected  by  strong  personal  and  selfish 
"  considerations,  will  not  be  in  that  calm  and  well-bal- 
"  anced  condition  which  is  favorable  to  a  correct  and 
"  patriotic  judgment  of  the  question.  The  very  state 
^'  of  things  will  perhaps  exist  which  our  Black  Repub- 
"  lican  enemies  predict  will  exist,  and  which  they  sneer- 
"  ingly  rely  upon  to  force  our  people  to  ask  for  re-ad- 
"  mission  into  the  Union." 

These  remarks  of  Mr.  Yancey  show  conclusively  that 
he  believed  it  to  be  the  purpose  of  the  advocates  of  a 
new  Convention  to  gain  time  and  thus  to  enable  the 
State  to  seize  the  first  opportunity  to  return  to  the 
Union.  A  motion  that  the  plan  for  a  Confederate 
States  Constitution  should  be  submitted  for  ratification 
or  rejection  to  a  new  Convention  to  be  elected  by  the 


THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.      527 

people,  was  laid  upon  the  table  by  a  vote  of  49  in  favor 
of  laying  it  upon  the  table,  and  39  opposed  to  tabling. 

The  Convention  adjourned  until  March  4th.  Before 
dispersing,  the  President,  Mr.  Brooks,  said  :  "  We  are 
"  free,  and  shall  any  of  us  cherish  any  idea  of  a  recon- 
"  struction  of  the  old  government,  whereby  Alabama 
"  will  again  link  her  rights,  her  fortunes  and  her  destiny 
"  in  a  Union  with  the  Northern  States  ?  If  any  of 
"  you  hold  to  such  a  fatal  opinion,  let  me  entreat  you, 
"  as  you  value  the  blessings  of  equality  and  freedom, 
''  dismiss  it  at  once.  There  is  not,  cannot  be,  any  secu- 
"  rity  or  peace  for  us  in  a  reconstructed  government  of 
"  the  old  material.  I  must  believe  that  there  is  not  a 
'-  friend  or  advocate  of  reconstruction  in  this  large  body. 
"  The  people  of  Alabama  are  now  independent ;  sink 
"  or  swim,  live  or  die,  they  will  continue  free,  sovereign 
"  and  independent.  Dismiss  the  idea  of  a  reconstruc- 
"  tion  of  the  old  Union  now  and  forever." 

On  the  1 2th  of  March  the  permanent  Constitution 
for  the  Confederate  States  was  submitted  to  the  Ala- 
bama Convention.  Mr.  Jemison,  of  Tuskaloosa,  advo- 
cated its  submission  to  a  direct  vote  of  the  people.  He 
said  that  there  was  great  dissatisfaction  in  some  sec- 
tions of  the  State  because  the  ordinance  of  secession 
had  not  been  so  submitted.  It  would  be  impossible 
now  to  plead  want  of  time  or  necessity  for  hasty  action. 
Mr.  Morgan,  of  Dallas,  opposed  submission  of  the  in- 
strument to  the  people.     He  said  : 

"  The  people  would  never  ratify  by  a  direct  vote. 
"  This  doctrine  of  a  direct  vote  of  the  people  on  ratifi- 
"  cation  was  absurd  and  odious.  A  reference  would 
"  give  rise  to  many  distracting  questions.  The  African 
"  slave  trade  would  be  brought  in  ;  the  question  of  Re- 
"  construction,  with  all  its  agitating  features,  would  be 
"  brought  in,  and  many  other  questions  of  sufficient 
"  abstract  merit  to  excite  the  people  and  arouse  opposi- 
*'  tion,  but  of  no  useful  importance.     Our  fathers  never 


628      THE  CEADLB  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

"  would  have  ratified  the  old  Constitution  by  a  direct 
"vote." 

It  was  argued  by  the  friends  of  submission  that  the 
existing  Convention,  having  adopted  the  ordinance  of 
secession,  was  fufictus  officio ;  that  the  formation  of  a 
new  government  by  Alabama  with  certain  States,  was 
new  matter  demanding  a  new  voice  from  the  people.  It 
was  said  that  the  proposed  Constitution  had  been 
framed  by  deputies  elected  by  the  Convention  and  not 
by  the  people,  and  ,that  the  people  had  nothing  to  say . 
as  to  the  ordinance  of  secession,  the  election  of  a  Pro- 
visional Government,  or  the  formation  of  a  permanent 
Constitution.  Now  they  were  to  be  deprived  of  an 
opportunity  of  voting  upon  the  kind  of  sjovernment 
under  which  they  were  to  live.  Mr.  Smith,  of  Tuska- 
loosa,  said  :  "  They  find  themselves  under  a  new  gov- 
"  ernment,  and  in  amazement  exclaim,  who  did  this  ? 
"  They  find  themselves  in  the  hands  of  a  new  Congress, 
"  and  exclaim — who  elected  this  new  Congress  ?  Who 
"  authorized  it  ?  The  answer  is,  '  We  are  the  People.' 
"  Sir,  that  *  we  are  the  people '  in  any  but  a 
"  representative  sense,  is  absurd.  It  is  the  flimsy 
"  excuse  for  usurpations  ;  it  has  ^been  the  characteris- 
"  tic  of  legislative  tyrannies  in  all  ages  of  the  world, 
"  fi-om  the  Areopagus  to  Cromwell's  Parliament." 

Mr.  Jemison's  proposed  amendment  to  the  commit- 
tee's report,  providing  for  the  meeting  of  a  new  Con- 
vention to  pass  upon  the  Constitution,  was  finally  voted 
down  by — ayes  36,  noes  53. 

The  Confederate  States  Constitution  was  then  ratified 
by  the  Alabama  Convention,  only  five  votes  being  cast 
against  it. 

On  Tuesday,  March  12,  a  resolution  was  unani- 
mously adopted  by  the  Convention  approving  the 
election  of  Jefferson  Davis  President,  and  Alexander 
H.  Stephens  Vice-President,  of  the  Provisional  Govern- 
ment of  the  Confederate  States  of  America.  x\^ 


LOAN  DEPT. 

^'^.ti'S  ^,&'i^^«  -n»«.,b.W. 


■^Wf^-^S?^ 


J£C'D  LD 


-JAJLU23..^.pftl4-^____ 


(Q1173s10)476-1a-32 


TT  .^oe^al  Library 
University  of  California 
^Berkeley 


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H.7        . 

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